Chamber and committees

You have given me lots of stuff there, but you have not told me what it will feel like. You are in charge. Let us say that you are in charge of driving the policy and that you are making suggestions to the community. What would you suggest should be done?

With the convener’s permission, I will bring in Liam Kerr, who might have a question about that.

Do you? Ah, right—okay.

Is that just you, though?

What is actually the problem, then? Give me some tangible things that show what the problem is.

You are indicating that it is perhaps in the education system where the big weakness is, rather than in the community. Is that what you think?

I will bring James in too.

I will summarise. You have made a compelling case for what it could look like. However, we have also acknowledged, I think, that that could happen already and that the bill will not really make much difference in that regard—finance will be a major hurdle. If the bill is to be significant, it will probably need some degree of compulsion, requirement or standard, but I do not see that emerging from the bill.

There is quite a lot of bureaucracy, and quite a lot of processes and plans. In previous meetings, we have talked about the fact that the language is being spoken in school but that it is not being taken home and is not being spoken in the pub or the shop.

Has that activity increased or decreased in recent years?