Chamber and committees

Good morning. Generally, the Scottish population has a good sense of what Gaelic-medium education means and of its benefits. I have Edinburgh’s Gaelic-medium primary school in my constituency, and I used to work in the high school in Edinburgh that provides Gaelic-medium education. However, official status of the languages and what that means might be quite new to many people. Can you tell us a bit more about how that will practically impact on communities in Scotland? How should the Scottish public sector, the third sector and the private sector interpret official status if the bill is passed and we move forward to that place?

Your comments are helpful—thanks. To be absolutely clear, the bill does not create new obligations. I think that you mentioned that, Mr Ansdell.

Good morning, and thank you for your time. You have all touched on this a bit already, but could you expand on what, in your view, success would look like in the long term for Gaelic and Scots? How should success be measured? Given what you have already stated, I ask each of you to be clear with the committee about whether you think that there should be a pause and the bill should be reconsidered, which I think Conchúr Ó Giollagáin is arguing, or whether it should be amended.

What would success look like in the long term, how should that be measured, and what are your thoughts on the bill?

If those charging points can be delivered, that will be a significantly good outcome.

I will just add that the Scottish Law Commission is looking at a bill to reform tenement law in the next parliamentary session, which I think is essential.

That was helpful, and we might follow up on some of it.

Do you want to say anything about agriculture? Campaigners have brought up that issue with me on a number of occasions. I know that there is a lot of appetite in the farming community to be part of climate action but, for producers and consumers, that might require some choices.

Thank you.

I have two questions, convener.

On that sense of collective challenge and purpose in the political discourse, Chris Stark made some powerful points on the BBC at the weekend. As this is your last time at the committee in your current role, I give you the chance to say anything further on the collective challenge in our discourse and how we need to work collaboratively—not just to all of us around the table but to every politician in this building, every researcher and press officer behind the scenes, every journalist, and every campaigner and researcher for the many stakeholders who are involved in those considerations. How do we get our collective discourse and position to a better place?

Recently, I visited a very interesting project that Lar Housing Trust has undertaken, in which it has converted an existing tenement building and a new tenement building with a district heating system through two British companies—one of which is Scottish. Kensa is a UK level company and Sunamp is from here in Scotland. There is evidence of what can be done.

As a constituency MSP who represents a lot of people who live in tenement housing and as someone who lives in one myself, reform of the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 is important, as is the current consultation. Those issues need to be seen in tandem if we want to convert existing housing stock.