Chamber and committees

In that case, Deputy First Minister, can I just check whether at stage 2 you would envisage accepting amendments on things such as housing, transport and the economy in those areas?

Good morning to the Deputy First Minister and your officials. I appreciated your opening statement. A lot of what you said was about work that is already going on. To what degree is the bill necessary to provide further support for Gaelic and Scots?

A report that you commissioned said that

“The needs of the Gaelic language must be considered more fully across all areas of public policy and all levers, current and future, should be utilised to better support the language”,

and the bòrd, the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education all agree that this should not be siloed to education. Do you know why your predecessors decided to make the bill an education bill? What new things does the bill introduce outwith education that will help the communities that you just described?

Can I interrupt you, Deputy First Minister? I appreciate what you are saying, but do you think that it is disappointing that the bill does not include housing, transport or other issues in its scope?

In your submission, you noted that engagement within the community could wane and trust could be eroded if the bill does not adequately engage with the challenges within the community. Does the bill recognise that enough? If not, what else could it do?

I will press you on that point. The bill team said that some of those issues would be addressed in the strategy, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise said that some of those issues should be addressed in the bill. What do you think?

Good morning. Thank you for the information that you have given us in advance, and for your opening statement. It is much appreciated.

My first question is quite broad. It is simply this: how will the bill support the Gaelic language in the medium and long term?

Thank you. That is much appreciated. We will come on to that subject in another line of questioning shortly.

Unless anyone wants to add anything, I will leave it there for the time being.

Do you think that the bill will do that?

I want to take that discussion a little further. What, specifically, do you think is required in order to have a place-based, community-led approach to supporting Gaelic that would include public services, the third sector and the private sector, which Ealasaid Dhòmhnallach said was important? Ideally, I would like you to indicate whether that should be done through legislation or whether you already have the powers and the space to do that.