Chamber and committees

Convener, can I ask if it is—

I have a question on mainstreaming the funding of arts and culture in bigger projects, whether those are infrastructure projects for town centres or, as we have talked about in the past in this committee, big projects for the health service. If we look at other countries, Ireland has been cited as an example of where a percentage of the project itself is ring fenced or earmarked for culture and arts. Do you think that we have anything to learn from that model?

A number of witnesses today have talked about what has not worked, but I am keen to know about the areas where there has been success and research that might help us to do the spatial planning that you have been talking about. That, again, might be a question for Phil Taylor.

—invited anyone to represent Government science.

I hope that we will hear some more about that next week.

I want to ask Bally Philp about the involvement of stakeholders in the process of moving away. After all, there was a reduction of some 28 per cent in the areas subject to closure. How were stakeholders consulted in that process?

—when we have not as a committee—

Professor Heath, it would be interesting to get your take on some of things that previous witnesses have said. There seems to be some scepticism about the effectiveness of previous measures on cod in the Clyde, and questions have been raised about what could be done in the future. It would be interesting to hear your views on the effectiveness of the measures that we have had in the past and whether anything can be done in the future to protect cod spawning and a cod fishery in the Clyde.

I will pick up, again, on something that other witnesses have raised. You may be about to tell me that there is not much science on this either—I do not know—but I would be interested to know your view on the impact that spurdog might be having on cod. There has been a debate involving other parts of the west coast about a spurdog fishery being viable in the future. Can you offer any observations on spurdog?

You are not going to thank me for making this point, convener, but we have just heard a call for us to hear more about the official science and scientific data. It is difficult for us to discuss and argue the issues at this meeting—

No—let me finish, convener.