 Rwy'n fregafodd mewn fawr, those who are leaving the chamber to do so as quickly and as quietly as possible. The final item of business this evening is a member's business debate on motion number one four one five, in the name of Emma Harper, on the role of the British Irish parliamentary assembly. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put, I invite members wishing to participate in the debate to press the request to speak buttons now, or as soon as possible and I call on Emma Harper to open the debate around 7 minutes, I welcome the opportunity to lead to what I think is an important member's debate, focusing on the role of the British Irish parliamentary assembly. The assembly enhances scrutiny of each of the legislature's policy and decision making, and it fosters positive intergovernmental relationships. I mentioned that in last week's debate in chamber as well. I thank all members across chamber who supported my motion. I welcome that the support is cross-party, and that we have consensus on the role of BIPA. I also want to thank the BIPA clerks for the amazing work that they do, and Jenny Chinnambiri—I have to say it really slowly—and Stephen Bell, from our international relations office, they are absolutely amazing and they support us MSPs and they coordinate our visits. Stephen Bell provided us an excellent briefing ahead of the debate this evening. The current BIPA chairs, Brendan Smith TD and Karen Bradley MP, are excellent and they guide us through our business and events at all the plenary sessions. BIPA was originally established as the British Irish inter-parliamentary body in 1990 to create a link between the houses of Parliament and the houses of the Oirochtas. The first plenary session took place in London in 1990, and in 2001 membership was then enlarged to include the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Executive Register of the Isle of Man and the states of Guernsey and Jersey. The name British Irish parliamentary assembly was adopted to reflect the new era of relations between Britain and Ireland in 2008. BIPA's mission is to promote co-operation between elected representatives across the UK and Ireland and BIPA members, and that in turn represents the people that we all represent. BIPA wants to build on the close relationship established in recent years between politicians throughout Britain and Ireland. BIPA members engage in a wide range of non-legislative parliamentary activities through biannual plenary meetings and on-going committee work. Plenaries alternate between BIPA countries and debate topical issues, committee reports and include a question period with a senior minister from the host country. I was fortunate to meet Michael Martin when he was the Teesawch at one of our Dublin sessions. The current four BIPA committees are the steering group, the European Affairs, Economic Committee and Finally, Environment and Society. They meet regularly online and in person and take oral and written evidence on many specific issues. BIPA members sit in alphabetical order rather than as delegations of their respective legislatures, and national representation is only relevant for the purposes of the quorum and the tabling of certain motions and amendments. It seems to me that sitting next to a colleague from a different party or a party even in opposition enhances our inter-parliamentary relationships. The Parliament's regional assemblies and devolved institutions will all share a common tradition and a style of debate, and then these common routes are reflected in the way that the assembly operates. On 6 March 2023, members held an extra ordinary plenary in Belfast at Stormont to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday agreement. The Speaker of the House at Stormont granted the use of Stormont for the chamber and the meeting rooms for our special plenary. Former Teesawch Bertia Herne and Sir John Holmes, who was the principal private secretary to Tony Blair, when he was Prime Minister, were directly involved with the Good Friday agreement negotiations. They addressed the assembly on the significance of the historic peace agreement, and they responded to questions. Members of the Women's Coalition, Kate Fieran, Brona Hines, Dr Avila Kilmurrie and Jane Morris, followed up with a presentation and conveyed to me the significance of having the women involved in creating the peace process and promoting lasting peace. Attending the session was extremely impactful for everyone on 6 March. For me, growing up in Stranraer in the late 70s, I was all too aware of the troubles when I was growing up, and that was happening just across the water across the Irish Sea. For me, not enough is said about the role that women play in peace negotiations in any conflict, including what was happening in Ireland and the north at that time. That relates to my previous work on promoting United Nations Resolution 1325, which aims to promote the importance of women being at the forefront of peace talks. In addition to specific debates and motions, recommendations are made to lawmakers across the BIPA areas. In May, we had a plenary in Jersey where we heard from Jersey's first woman chief minister, Christina Muir. She took questions from me regarding whether Jersey is considering the wellbeing economy as part of their financial policy, and she agreed that wellbeing should be considered not just GDP. Creation of good relationships has been excellent for me and my BIPA colleagues. Senator Eamor Currie and Mauread Farrell TD, who subsequently invited me to visit Leinster House, which I did last summer. I was able to attend Teesawch Lee over Adker's leaders' questions, and I found the whole visit extremely welcoming and enjoyable. Plenary allowed us to share experiences. We have heard that Ireland has similar challenges with GP recruitment in rural areas, and I was able to provide insight into how the unique Scottish Government-created ScotGem programme has helped to increase the GP workforce in Scottish rural areas. Perhaps that is something that Ireland will be able to take forward and reflect on the work that the Scottish Government has done in promoting ScotGem. The economic committee that I am a member of is currently carrying out an energy inquiry, which is showing how energy policy differs in each of the legislatures. What is becoming increasingly apparent in our inquiry is how energy policy in the UK is so disproportionately negatively impacting Scotland. That is a good place to stop for me right now, Presiding Officer. I am conscious of the time, but what I would say in closing is that I again welcome the opportunity to lead this debate. I am no asking the Government to do anything, except perhaps, which is probably a first, but BIPA has really benefited me in building inter-parliamentary relationships and in meeting with and learning from and acting on good policy to enhance the lives of the people that we represent. I look forward to hearing the contributions from other members. I move to the open debate. I call Kess White to be followed by Annabelle Ewing around four minutes. The work of MSPs is wide-ranging. The press often picks up on our adversarial politics, but the work that we do to build relationships, to find consensus and increase understanding together is often overlooked. That is why I am grateful to Emma Harper for providing MSPs with the parliamentary time to discuss our involvement with the British Irish parliamentary assembly. The last BIPA debate in the Scottish Parliament took place in 2012, so another one is long overdue. Thank you, Emma Harper. As a newly elected MSP in 2021, I jumped at the chance to participate in a different kind of parliamentary engagement. As Emma Harper pointed out, BIPA last year provided a valued forum for parliamentarians to discuss and to develop dialogue and issues in the north of Ireland, and in particular it offered an unrivaled opportunity to learn about the peace process and the courage and humanity to maintain it. I was fascinated to hear about the real change makers, those who really did make a difference in the Good Friday Agreement, John Hume, Mo Molen, President Bill Clinton, Bertie Ahurn and, as Emma Harper has pointed out, we met the women's coalition, the women who really were at the tipping point of change, and that was a tremendous privilege to meet them. But with cross-party participation from across the British Isles, BIPAs also provided a wider arena for discussion and cooperation. I particularly enjoyed meeting people and finding out what matters to them. I've learned so much about the power of talking, sharing a meal together and debating calmly with gentleness and humility on topical issues of mutual concern, and that really shouldn't be underestimated. Emma Harper touched on the structure of BIPA this evening, where much of the day-to-day work is carried out in the four cross-party committees that meet regularly. Emma Harper, you might be coming on to this, but I know your committee that you are a member of, or that the member is a member of, is the culture one, and you've just completed a Scottish-language, indigenous language report, which is really important for me, so that's something that I welcome. I'd be interested in your comments about that. Thank you, Presiding Officer. If I'm allowed, Presiding Officer, to say thank you, my Bonnie Cwine, to Emma Harper. Yes, it was tremendously rich, and I will be coming on to that. The recent report published in May 2023 focused, as Emma Harper said, on indigenous languages, and for me with a love of language that started from university when I did actually do a special project on Scots and Scottish languages, so I have a love of language, and I was delighted to work on this topic. We did have professors in Doric and from all over Scotland, also contributing to that debate, and it was tremendously rich. Language can sometimes, as we know, be co-opted for the wrong reasons, but as the report concluded, and I quote, Bippa is well-placed to continue to monitor the health of indigenous minority languages. Therein lies the beauty of Bippa. It transcends the political and finds common purpose among those with opposing views. It's a rich environment for learning and builds bridges with other legislators, and it's important that we do that and not exist in our silos. So I look forward to my continued participation and my committee's next meeting in February, and I deeply thank those, including our clerks, who to support us so well. I thank those who support the work of Bippa across the British Isles. I thank those who support the work of Bippa across the British Isles. I thank those who support the work of Bippa across the British Isles. Thank you very much, Ms White. I now call Annabelle Ewing to be followed by Pauline MacNeill, her own four minutes, Ms Ewing. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is indeed a great pleasure to have been called to speak in this debate on the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly, and I congratulate my colleague Emma Harper on securing this member's debate this evening. I, too, would like at the outset to put on the record my thanks to our fantastic IRO team here in this Parliament, and also the excellent Bippa clerks and indeed all the staff who ensure that our work continues apace and very effectively, I have to say. In fact, it is an honour for me to speak in this debate in my capacity as Deputy Presiding Officer, something that I don't tend to do very often, as you know, Presiding Officer, but I head up in that role the Scottish Parliament delegation to the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly, and I am pleased to see that in addition to Emma Harper and Tess White, we have the other members of the delegation in the chamber this evening, Ross Greer and Pauline MacNeill, and I know that they will be keen to make their own contributions. I note, too, that one of our associate members of the delegation, Paul O'Kane, is also seeking to participate in tonight's debate, and that would be also along with, and very appropriately, I think, the convener of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, Claire Adamson. In fact, the pre-runner to the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly was called the British Irish inter-parliamentary body, which met for the first time in London in 1990, and I would just like to take this opportunity, if I may, Presiding Officer, to commend for the record the involvement of my late sister-in-law, Margaret Ewing MP and MSP in this Parliament, and Margaret Ewing participated in that forum. I know that the work, the early work that they did at that time and in the context of the time of the day and where we were with what was going on on the island of Ireland, the work was very significant and I think it was very important to her personally because I know that she placed a great deal in terms of the importance of inter-parliamentary co-operation, but the modern day British Irish Parliamentary Assembly has developed, of course, further to the Good Friday Belfast agreement and the subsequent positive developments that we have witnessed over the years on the island of Ireland, and at its heart Beeper provides an important opportunity for dialogue with politicians from across those aisles on issues, of course, and then the island of Ireland, which remain very much on the political agenda, but also the issues covered are wider, much wider and represent issues of common interest to people across those aisles, and this can be seen in recent Beeper plenaries where there has been a focus, for example, on energy policy, on post-Brexit trade, minority languages, cross-border co-operation, and in fact the next plenary due to be held in spring in Ireland will focus on tourism, a very important part of the economies of all the constituent members of the assembly. As has been mentioned, the subject matter committees do a power of work in taking evidence and drawing up reports, and I note that Committee D being the Environment and Social Committee chaired by Lord Dubs will be holding their next meeting at the Scottish Parliament on 19 February as they continue their current inquiry on rural housing. For my part, I sit as head of the Scottish Parliament delegation on the steering committee, which meets in advance of plenary sessions and also the start of plenary sessions, and it proposes the agenda and is looking at wider issues, including most recently the future development and role of Beeper itself. There is a lot of good work that is carried out by Beeper, and I firmly believe that this inter-parliamentary body has an important role to play, not just in promoting co-operation and progress on the island of Ireland, but also in ensuring that politicians from across the political spectrum can meet and discuss the relevant challenges and opportunities of the day. Such dialogue also takes place at sidebar meetings, which are all the more important, given the impact of Brexit on the frequency of UK Irish discussions that have gone from near daily informal interactions in Brussels to less frequent and more formal meetings. In conclusion, I would say that the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly plays an important role in our international discourse. Difficult decisions are facilitated and positions reached, which always seek the common ground in what are very sensitive matters indeed. If I may just flag up that the plenary session in the autumn is due—we will see what happens in terms of political events—to take place here in our Parliament. I know that there will be a lot of interest in that meeting, and I feel confident that a very warm welcome will be extended to our guests. I am very pleased to speak in Emma Harper's debate. I think that it is the first of its kind to highlight the work of the British Parliamentary Assembly. I would like to be on record to my thanks for the support of the international relations team, but it has been a pleasure to work with Emma, Annabelle, Tess, Ross and Jackie Dunbar, who attended the last plenary session. As Labour's representative on the body, I can say that it is a privilege to take part. I joined as an associate member after the 2016 Brexit vote and attended my first meeting in Kilkenny in the province of Leicester in the south-east region of Ireland. Brexit was not on the agenda that mystified me, but it became clear that you cannot stop the politics taking over the agenda. I remember what seemed like an intense room. I was captivated by the politics that ensued between the parties of Northern Ireland and Ireland on the impact of the Brexit agreement. I honestly felt that I would have liked more members to have an insight into that, because it was unique to be able to listen at that time. To me, it is almost as if the forum itself provided a platform to those parties and indeed a buffer of the parties of Northern Ireland to debate the acute consequences of such a vote and, subsequently, the on-going suspension of the Parliament. That is how I feel when I attend. I see the politics played out. As Annabelle Ewing has said, the BIPA was established in 1990 as the British Irish parliamentary body and soon became the British Irish parliamentary assembly. Its origins are in the Good Friday agreement. If I did not know that, I am constantly reminded—he reminds everyone else—that it was the consequence of the Good Friday agreement. It was John D Taylor, Lord Colcuny, who was Lord Trimble's deputy and a key member of the peace talks, still a member of BIPA. I do not agree with him on a great deal. I do agree with him on this point, two points, actually. The first is that BIPA could pay a much stronger role across the legislators of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Incidentally, he is also a very strong supporter of the Palestinian people. In 1998, the British Irish Council was established under strand 3 of the 1998 Good Friday agreement. The council, as members will know, brings together ministers from Britain and Ireland and the devolved administrations. Strand 3 stated that, as well as inter-governmental links, the elected institutions of the members will be encouraged to develop an inter-parliamentary links, perhaps building on the British Irish inter-parliamentary body, and hence we have BIPA. As other members have said, the committees that really make the forum function, I had privileged to serve in committee D, which Lord Dobs currently chairs. An inquiry into abortion services took evidence on the impact on the women of Northern Ireland when the Republic voted for some restricted rights on abortion. I thought that only such a body could do the conduct, because what it did was it looked at the interactions of the different parliaments, and many women from Northern Ireland were already travelling to the UK for abortion. We got an insight into some of the horrendous conditions that they had to travel in. However, what implications would there have that the Republic had voted allowing them to travel south? What was the law on all of that? It was quite fascinating, because we had the head of medical services for the Republic, giving evidence that we would not have seen otherwise. BIPA has taken very seriously and has been addressed by very important speakers of both the UK Government and the Irish Government, right honourable Steve Baker, the Minister of State for Northern Ireland, Keir Starmer, Geoffrey Donaldson, leader of the DUP, John Finneke, the MP for representing Sinn Fein, the current t-shirt and all previous t-shirts have addressed this important forum. In conclusion, as I said already, we were quite privileged, and I sometimes wish that it was filmed and minuted, to listen to Bertie Ahern, Senator Mitchell and John Holmes, who was a civil servant at the time, to give unique insights into how the good Friday talks could have actually crumbled. Bertie Ahern spoke of going to his mother's funeral on one of the days of the talks and came back to the talks. Such is a profound act as it was seen. It is one of the acts that was seen as bringing some of the people together to make sure that he also spoke of the importance of John Mayer's contribution, but I said without the personality of Tony Blair that he did not believe that it could happen. It was a historic moment that I was privileged and others have mentioned who were there to listen to. I am really delighted if I had a chance to provide some insights to members, but let's do more to make sure that BIPAA is a forum of which other members can see the work of it. I thank Emma Harper for being in the debate this evening. Thank you very much, Ms McNeill. I now call Claire Adamson to be followed by Ross Greer around four minutes, Ms Adams. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I want to also start with a thank you tonight. That is to thank our delegates to BIPAA, the current delegates and previous delegates from this Parliament and indeed the likes of Margaret Ewing, as mentioned by Annabelle. I think that you do a tremendous job on our behalf. Sometimes we don't hear about it though, and I do have an ask today, not of Government but of us in this Parliament, to take back that we have regular updates on the parliamentary agenda from BIPAA and from other representative bodies like Clary, like the contact group for the Committee of the Regions. I sit along with Donald Cameron, as my deputy from the Constitution, the Interparliamentary Forum on behalf of the Parliament, which is a UK body, and as a delegate to the Parliamentary Partnership Assembly in Europe, which is the meeting of Westminster and the Lords with our European colleagues now that we are no longer in Europe. I think that it is really important that we do hear those updates, because we have had examples of what good work happens at these forums. I was particularly taken with the Scottish language being mentioned. I knew that that would be at the heart of what Ms Harper was doing as she goes forward. That was one of the first things that the group did. The letter used languages across the Islands, including in the Isle of Manor, and of course the Channel Islands. Those links are not about borders, they are not about boundaries, because they are shared culture that we have with people from out the United Kingdom and from the Islands, but also into France, with those shared Celtic traditions and Celtic language traditions. It is really important, and I know that the European Union has been doing work on establishing and recognising cultural activity as a really important heritage. Things like Uphelia and the other traditions that we have across our communities, such as Lanhamers and Lanark, are close to my heart. Those are things that BIPA will have at its heart, and we will continue to look and support and preserve on our behalf. That is great work, but there is also really important work. Brexit has been managed. My own committee has been focusing on the change of the relationship within the UK following Brexit, but we also have to recognise that those relationships have changed across the water, both the Irish sea and into Europe. Those forums are so important for keeping those links going, for having that shared understanding and for being able to develop policy to the benefit of all our communities. I am not the only person in the room that I know with Irish heritage, and I think that we have to remember that at the heart of BIPA is also protecting the common travel area. The common travel area has been in existence for a long, long time since Irish independence, and it marks the strong, close, cultural community familial relationships that we have across the Irish sea. It is really important that BIPA has that at its heart, along with preserving the agreements of the Good Friday agreement. Again, a huge thank you to everyone who is there. I hope that we can have more opportunities to hear about the work of BIPA and the work that our colleagues are doing going forward. I think that it has been a breath of fresh air this afternoon to hear such a consensus, because, after all, we do not see enough the consensual work that is done across this Parliament to develop policy and make lives better for our communities. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I thank Emma Harper for giving us the opportunity to discuss the work of the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly and to thank our clerks in the international relations office for the support that they have given us. I have been a member of BIPA for eight years now, and it is by far one of the greatest privileges that I have had in this job. It is through being a member of BIPA that I discovered my Irish heritage, just mentioning off-handed my gran one day where I was about to go on a trip. It was only at that point that she told the rest of us that our family had come from Sligo and Ennis Gillan. It has been a huge privilege for me because I have been able to sit in a room with, get to know and work with people who risk so much, who risk their lives to secure peace for the north of Ireland, people who have been on the opposite sides of a war, including former combatants in that war, on both sides, who now sit in that room together for these discussions. I found it particularly significant because people my age in Northern Ireland do not remember the conflict. I was born around the same time of the Loyalist ceasefire in 1994 and the first of the IRA's ceasefires in that period leading up to the Good Friday agreement. A friend of mine from the North likes to remind people that Northern Ireland is a post-conflict society, not a post-conflict society. They are still living in the shadow of what came before, and the peace process is exactly that. It is a process that is on-going, and it is a process that we all have a responsibility to contribute to, because it is still really fragile, as we have seen over the past couple of years as risks to it became apparent once again. My first BIPA meeting was immediately after the Brexit referendum vote, and there was a sense of shock around the room, even among those in the room who had voted leave and not necessarily expected their side to win. What I think it sadly revealed was a level of ignorance and complacency in Great Britain about Northern Ireland that simply should not have been the case. A sense that peace had been achieved was something that did not need to be worried about any more, rather than a recognition that Northern Ireland was an equal part of the UK and that peace was a process. Eight years on, we are still trying to square the circle of the border issues there. A sea border is never going to be acceptable to unionists, and a land border is never going to be acceptable to nationalists or compatible with the Good Friday agreement. However, the collapse in the executive in Northern Ireland is not entirely about that, and I want to mention it. It is also about a crisis within unionism, and specifically the DUP, which campaigned for Brexit and has been unable to reconcile themselves with getting what they wanted at the time. However, it is a bigger issue than that. The bigger issue is that young Protestants and unionists, or young people from that background, are not voting for unionist parties in Northern Ireland in the numbers they used to do, because of reasons of social policy, such as LGBT rights or abortion rights. Young people from the north have come and spoken to BIPA on a number of occasions about issues such as climate change and education that they want to talk about with their assembly members. However, they cannot. They can talk to the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly, but they cannot talk to Stormont because it does not function. If you combine that crisis and unionism with Sinn Fein's growth within the nationalist electorate, you get the inevitable result, which is Sinn Fein coming first in the last election. That gets to the nub of why there is not a Northern Irish executive at the moment. It is not entirely about Brexit, but it is because one party cannot reconcile itself with the fact that another party won the election. The DUP cannot reconcile themselves with the fact that there would be a Sinn Fein First Minister, even though they would be able to have the Deputy First Minister on entirely equal terms. I know that I am thinking about timing all that. We are talking about when we were in Stormont, and Stormont was not sitting. Do you agree that it was absolutely palpable that, from the members there, they were really wholeheartedly disappointed that Stormont just still—there was no sign of getting Stormont restarted? I felt the distress of our Northern Irish colleagues that some of us in this chamber have spoken in their chamber more than they have, because BIPA was able to use it, but the assembly itself was not sitting. Imagine how galling that would be for us. Think of this Parliament having not sat for years at a time—the huge amount of work that we do for the people of Scotland—the work that we do on an entirely consensual cross-party basis, not happening for years, budgets not being set for years. It is because I would urge the DUP to recognise that they are losing far more than they are gaining here, and they need to re-engage with the assembly, and they need to re-engage with the British Irish parliamentary assembly as well. I should make the point that I am speaking specifically of the DUP here, not of Northern Irish unionism as a whole. Our Ulster Unionist Party colleagues make a fantastic contribution to the assembly. Briefly, before closing, I urge the UK Government to engage more as well. Our Irish colleagues have repeatedly raised their concerns that, while the Irish Government engages comprehensively with the assembly, the British Government often does not, but I would give an honourable mention here to Steve Baker, Northern Irish minister, who I agree with on almost nothing, but who makes a sincere and heartfelt contribution to BIPA. I think that it needs more senior ministers, cabinet secretaries, secretaries of state and the Prime Minister himself to engage. I would like to finish by echoing the points that others have made about collaboration. My BIPA committee will be in Helsinki in Tallinn soon on a security inquiry. Unfortunately, I will not be able to join them. It is a fantastic example of not just the cross-jures section that is taking place here, but the engagement of BIPA with our wider continent. I would also like to mention some of the individuals that I have had the privilege of meeting Reg MP, who was one of those who sacrificed so much for the peace process. Alf Dubbs, whom I had a profoundly moving conversation with, Christina McKelvie and Linda Fabiani, about an issue that is not directly related to BIPA, about my sister dying. A discussion that we had on the fringes of the assembly in a hotel reception has significantly changed my views on that issue. I am sure that we have interest to you, Presiding Officer. One final individual that I would like to mention is Stefan Lewis, who was a pied member of the assembly, who made a huge contribution, elected at the same time as me, who sadly passed away at the age of 34. Stefan was a really valued colleague in somebody that we had the privilege of working with during his time on the assembly. BIPA is essential. It is essential because it ensures that at least some members of the parliaments and assemblies on these islands know and understand each other. Those of us in Great Britain and the rest of Ireland understand the profound issues that are still facing the north as it makes its way through the peace process. The value in knowing and understanding each other on a personal level, collaborating on a wide range of issues and building those relationships, I would very much like to see that continue. Presiding Officer, thank you for your indulgence. Thank you very much indeed, Mr Greer. I now call Willie Coffey, who joins us online to be followed by Paul O'Kane, for around four minutes. Thank you to my colleague Emma Harper for bringing the work of BIPA to the attention of the Scottish Parliament and to being able to offer a few reflections of my own. It was my pleasure to have served in the assembly from 2011, so 2022, if memory serves me correctly, and what a privilege it was to do that. I recall my then whip, Brian Adam, asking me one day or telling me rather. You are interested in Irish politics, aren't you? How do you fancy serving on BIPA? That was it basically, but what a wonderful experience it was, and I am so grateful to Brian Adam for that lovely man dearly missed. The First Assembly attended, Presiding Officer, was in Brighton in 2011, and what stage, you know, an initial experience it was for me to travel from my SNP conference in Inverness, where it was absolutely freezing to then arrive in Brighton to see people sunbathing in the beach on more or less the same day. That geographical contrast was something that would be repeated in a political sense over the coming years of the assembly. In my early days, though, as a member, I initially thought, what on earth was the point of this? There was hardly any real debate, just contributions on topics of mutual interest from the members, no divisions, no votes on anything and composite motions agreed by everyone, but that was the point, to foster good relations and to search for and to get agreement amongst members who were diametrically opposed to one another in their normal political settings. A rare achievement but thank goodness for it. I saw members from the Unionist and nationalist traditions in Ireland coming together regularly in genuine dialogue with a very real spirit of friendship and co-operation aided to some degree by the wonderful social side of the assembly too, that has to be said. That success was epitomised for me, Presiding Officer, in a moment in 2012 in Dublin. In Doyle-Earn, when I managed to coax two colleague members, John McAllister, MLA and Noel Cunan-TD, to pose together under a portrait of Michael Collins, with the warmest of handshakes and who had the highest regard for one another, Unionist and nationalist hand in hand, where else and in what setting could this possibly have been achieved? For me, that is what BIPA has done and what it must remain all about. Those early days since its establishment in 1990 were probably clouded with a little bit of suspicion and whether one agenda could outflank the other, but to their eternal credit, the founding members put in place such a powerful arrangement that succeeded and has endured for all of these past 34 years. If I have one request, Presiding Officer, it would be this and in the true spirit of BIPA not to be too critical but to respectfully ask that the British Prime Ministers take an interest and attend BIPA. The Irish Prime Ministers, or Thishig, always found the time to attend and it was greatly appreciated by all the members. Over the years, I recall stand-out contributions from Lord Alff-Dubbs, Lord Buw, Frankie Feein, Patrick Adoniffin and not forgetting Pat LeColp Gallar. Sometimes contrasting, of course, but always taken as forward and not backwards. Very sadly, Presiding Officer, in preparation for the debate tonight, I learned about the death of a dear friend, Senator Paul Coughlin, who passed away during the summer and who served in BIPA for many years and was a great support to me too. Paul Coughlin was what this assembly was all about, bringing people together across the political divide. If it can be done, let's do it together with his watchword. On that fitting note, Presiding Officer, I thank Emma Harper once again for bringing BIPA into this chamber and to wish the assembly and all its members every success in the future in continuing to find the common ground for the peace, reconciliation and prosperity that we all seek. I am happy to have the opportunity to speak on this important matter. I felt it appropriate to begin my contribution in both English and Irish this evening, and I'm sure that the official report will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that that is perhaps the first use of the Irish language in a debate in this place. I say debate because I'm very conscious of the speech of Anouk Theroy na heron Michael D Higgins in 2016, and I wouldn't want to claim to be the first when such an August speaker did use Irish in this chamber. As someone who shares both British and Irish citizenship, I wanted to use a couple of fuckles in recognition of the values of the institution that we debate this evening. Those values are co-operation, building relationships and building respect and understanding. Co-operation across our islands, relationships of family, of politics, of business and respect for our shared heritage and our commonality, but also understanding of our differing traditions. Through the power of dialogue, debate and agreement, we can find solutions to common problems with the people that we represent across these islands. It is a pleasure to follow many fine speeches in that regard this evening, and I pay tribute in particular to Emma Harper for bringing this motion to the chamber. Indeed, I pay tribute to all those members of the British Irish parliamentary assembly and, indeed, to associate members, I declare an interest, of course, but also to all the staff and all those who helped to make the work of the assembly work so well. I have done so in the Scottish Parliament for the past 25 years almost indeed since the beginning of the Parliament. I want to use my time this evening to focus on the vital work of the institution in securing and sustaining peace in Northern Ireland. We are now 25 years on from the Good Friday Agreement, and I was proud to have led commemorations of that historic moment in this Parliament last year with the support of the Irish Council, Mr Gerry O'Donovan, the John Smith Centre at the University of Glasgow and the John and Pat Hume Foundation. It was wonderful to hear mention of the Women's Coalition, because we had Monica McWilliams here in the Parliament, a founding member of that coalition, to speak very passionately about her work. However, it is John Hume who I want to focus my contribution on this evening, because without his vision, his total commitment to dialogue and his forbearance, there would be no peace in Northern Ireland, and there would be no British Irish parliamentary assembly as we know it. As we have already heard this evening, the peace process did not begin and end on Good Friday 1998. It was a long journey where windows of light let chinks into the darkness along the way until finally the door of agreement was reached and opened. The Anglo-Irish agreement of 1985, the establishment of the British Irish inter-parliamentary body in 1990, the Downing Street Declaration in 1993 and so on, all those moments crucial on the journey to 1998 and all inspired by the architecture of John Hume. In 1980, John Hume met Humphrey Atkins, who was the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, accompanied by his SDLP colleagues, Austin Corry and Hugh Loog, who I declared an interest of my father's cousin, and told him that there were three important elements in any political talks—relationships between the people of Northern Ireland, relationships between the people of the north and south of the island of Ireland, and relations between Britain and Ireland. Those would become the defining three strands of the Good Friday agreement. John Hume envisaged that new bodies would help to foster the conditions for a lasting settlement and an enduring peace. It is clear to me that BIPAA embodies those three strands, supporting dialogue between the parties and people in Northern Ireland, supporting dialogue north and south on the island of Ireland, supporting dialogue east and west between the islands. The work that colleagues do today is vital in continuing the on-going business of building better futures for us all. Even as we face difficult challenges, which I think we have heard about already tonight, it is clear that BIPAA is needed more than ever. Domestic and international challenges and, as our colleagues in the Northern Ireland Assembly have not sat for two years and the institutions of the Good Friday agreement are threatened, it is clear that we must continue to do all that we can to bring people together. We must protect what has been built. We must offer that east-west hand of friendship because it matters to so many of us in the diaspora here in Scotland and beyond. I will leave the chamber this evening with the words of John Hume, who said that, when people are divided, the only solution is agreement. So long may the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly be a forum for the solution found in dialogue, respect and agreement. I warmly welcome the debate and congratulate my friend Emma Harper MSP on having secured it. I am really grateful to colleagues who have contributed. I have noted a number of excellent, interesting points and will do my best to comment on all of them if I can. I think that the starting point is that the Scottish Government welcomes both increased contact with international partners and increased collaboration between this parliament and other parliaments. The British Irish Parliamentary Assembly is a great example of both of those. My own experience of BIPAA was attending one of the meetings in Sligo, actually, where Ross Greene and I spoke about both our families' connections to Sligo when we were there. However, I was invited over as a Scottish Government minister for equalities to talk about women 100 years since women had got the vote. It was a crack in a few days. Some of the older men did not quite agree with the younger women in the room about how we should move forward, but we had those disagreements, we had those conversations and we came to a common understanding. I think that that is one of the key messages from today's debate. On our international links, we are determined to remain outward facing as a Government and I know that we do as a Parliament because we do believe that that is the best answer to challenges. The best answer is to never retreat from those challenges, not to cuddle into our shell or hunker down or not face up to things that are really tough but always to work in partnership to seek those resolutions. That is all the more important in the current circumstances that we face, not only the disastrous consequences of Brexit but the very real global challenges of which this Parliament is only too aware. In that context, our support for BIPAA underlines our commitment to close partnership with our Irish friends among others. Ross Greer, Willie Coffey and Paul O'Kane all spoke profoundly about the value of building good relationships and BIPAA's role in bringing people together from opposing sides and I think using Paul O'Kane's words from opposing sides finding resolutions to common issues. The real essence of the work that BIPAA does and Annabelle Ewing and her contribution reminded us about Margaret Ewing's involvement in the early stages of all that work. Like Margaret Ewing, who held the role of BIPAA and its earlier iteration in really high regard and raised awareness and supported it as much as she could, we attach the same great importance to that relationship. The Ireland-Scotland joint bilateral review, which was co-produced by Scottish and Irish Governments, recognises how vital partnership working is across diplomacy, the economy, the diaspora, culture, research and education and rural and island communities. Can I take this opportunity publicly to pay my personal tribute to the Irish Consul General, Gerry O'Donovan, everywhere I go, he is there? That tells you something about how engaged he is with every aspect of Scottish life and how we can collaborate on that. In July 2023, Ileens Tyneshtag Mihal Martin and Scotland's Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, Angus Robertson, met to review the progress and implementation of that review, the noted considerable process, particularly on business and economic links, cultural collaborations, joint research projects and shared policy engagement on, for example, the resettlement of Ukrainian refugees, renewable energy and health. We have heard some of the examples of the committee work that BIPA does in those areas, too. As a committed parliamentarian, I also strongly value inter-parliamentary engagement. There is nothing better than getting together with people from other parts of the world who are politicians, who are striving for the same issues that you are striving for, but maybe have a different way of looking at it or a different way of thinking about it or a different way of actually securing a resolution to it. It is important that good working relationships are built to ensure that learning can be shared and how we best represent the interests of those impacted by the decisions taken by all of our parliaments. I really look forward, hopefully, as Annabelle Ileens said, to catching up with my dear friend Lord Alff-Dubbs, who has been a dear friend for many years. When he visits this place, I do not get to talk to him enough. When you do get to talk to him, you have so many wonderful experiences of his lifelong commitment to democracy. For example, in the Oructis Joint Committee on Autism, it visited Scotland last year to meet with counterparts to learn more about Scotland's approach in providing services for young people and children with autism. Again, I share in the work that we all do. Emma Harper, Tessa White and Annabelle Ewing spoke about the other committees, housing, languages and all of that work, too. I think that our collaboration on health and social care is a key part of our ongoing relationship with Ireland. Members who are on the committee, please let us talk about the work that you are doing and the work that we are doing with that as well. The same with languages. Languages are such a key part of a nation's culture or a community of interests culture. Whether it is English, Scots, Dalek, Welsh or, I think, it is the gerier, which is the language of Jersey, BIPa really helps to raise the dialogue around languages and how important they are. I know that the Constitution, Europe and External Affairs and Culture Committee recently visited Belfast and Dublin to meet with parliamentarians regarding its on-going work on the national outcomes. I am going out soon to Dublin to talk about our cultural links when I am out there, too. The Scottish Government has also been pleased to observe the important work of the parliamentary partnership assembly, which has established EU trade and co-operation agreement. It is difficult ground, but it is necessary to move forward post Brexit. BIPa fits really well in the model in which it creates those circumstances in which we can all meet and talk. Its contribution to enhancing parliamentary connection between Scotland and Ireland is explicitly recognised in the bilateral review and acknowledged by those who participate in it. I am sure that Parliament Nails call for stronger inter-parliamentary dialogue and doing more has been heard. I think that all the members here heard and should take that forward. I, too, would appreciate the updates called for by Clare Adamson and agree the need to nurture those changing relationships. One key aspect that all members raised in the debate today was about the foundation of the work, the Good Friday Agreement, the Good Friday anniversary event that was held a few years ago and the role of women in the peace process. I do not think that the Mamys of Ireland have ever had the recognition that they should have had for the peace negotiations that they were involved in. Maybe something moving forward has taken that into account. Ross Greer mentioned living in the shadow of what went before and creating some light within that. Paul O'Kane again talked about the relationships. I reassure Emma Harper that the 1325 fellows that we currently fund in Scotland are about women in the peace process. I met them last week, the latest cohort and the new cohort coming in March. I think that that is really important to do that. Just one point on languages, just so that I can be in the same calibre as the people sitting here. I am sure that the report from the committee that Tess White mentioned was bros, grieving indeed. I will get a cheer from Emma Harper on. To sum up, I think that this is going to be a great debate. There has been one key feature of the successful parliamentary work that binds us all together, and that is building those relationships. I think that it is vital that we work together. I am really pleased to have such a respectful and constructive approach. Are there experiences of BIPA? We should take some lessons from it, but we are marking that here today in a pay tribute to the Scottish members and associates for their work. I thank Emma Harper again for bringing forward this debate. We would be delighted to have an update on the work that BIPA is doing. Thank you, Presiding Officer.