 Hello, colleagues. I am to remind the members that social distancing is on place and that measures are in place in the chamber across the Holyrood campus. When members are moving around, they should take care to observe the measures and only use the aisles on walkways to access your seat when they are moving around the chamber. The final item of business is a member's business debate on motion 1.6.6, in the of Alasdair Allan on national gaelic language plan 2023 to 2028. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put to headphones. I think that I have been distributed to all members present who wish to listen to the simultaneous interpretation. Members who are on blue jeans will hear the simultaneous interpretation. With those members who wish to speak in the debate, please press the request to speak buttons now. I call on Alasdair Allan to open the debate. Presiding Officer, much good has happened in the world of Gaelics since the Gaelic Language Act was passed by the Parliament in 2005. We now have BBC Alaba, Gaelic Media and Education has grown, many public bodies now have Gaelic language plans and the place of Gaelic in culture and the arts is now much stronger. Boarding of Gaelic and other organisations work for the language and most of the time there is a consensus across the parties that Gaelic is important and useful to Scotland. The cross-party group on Gaelic seeks to promote that consensus. And although prejudice against Gaelic still rears its head from time to time in the media, opinion polls show that support for Gaelic is considerably stronger across Scotland now than it was 20 years ago. It is good for us to have an opportunity from time to time to celebrate these positive things. At the same time, it is just as important that we recognise the problems too. Support of every type is hugely important to Gaelic, but on its own, not even support, not even knowledge of the language is enough. People have to use Gaelic and that implies that places and situations will exist in which doing just that is possible. At the very time when interest in Gaelic is growing, the decline in the use of the language in island communities has been worsening. I am very sad to say that was obvious from the report produced by Celsia, which looked at the situation in the western isles, Skye and Tyrie, though that much was very clear to the people of these places in any case. I won't reiterate all over again the details in the report about the state of Gaelic amongst young people or the opinions that emerged in the community conversations which I held afterwards. They all demonstrated the need there is for Gaelic policies that are more tailored to the needs of vernacular communities and which acknowledge the difference between planning for the language needs of a school, for example, of those of an island. I am pleased to see Board and Gaelic recognise these issues and that they have an offset with specific responsibility now for island communities. It is very important at this point that I stress the way in which Gaelic is used across Scotland. Gaelic belongs to Scotland nationally as place names in almost every area of the country. I didn't learn my Gaelic in the islands but in Glasgow. There are vibrant Gaelic communities in the major cities and every Gaelic community is vital to the future of the language. We have to recognise however that it would be difficult to see that any language would in a healthy state if there was no place in which could be heard on the street or in a shop. That is the urgent danger that is a threat in the islands. We have an opportunity now with our new national Gaelic plan to do something to make sure that the promotion of Gaelic is not just a question of how many people have Gaelic but how many people use it. To be clear, Board and Gaelic and the Gaelic schools can save Gaelic on their own. It would be unfair and unreasonable to shoulder them with any such responsibility. People often discuss the cost of providing services through the medium of Gaelic, interestingly nobody ever seems to ask about the cost of providing public services through the medium of English or even to understand that these account for the great majority of services in the public sector even in the islands such as health services. I am well aware what one or two newspapers would say about me if I were to suggest today that the most important thing for health services at this point might be the state of Gaelic although I would say in the passing that I was very pleased to find that I got my own COVID-jag through the medium of Gaelic and I joined that immensely. I am in fact saying something else however I recall a while ago speaking to someone who was a member of a health board somewhere in the north of Scotland. This is what he said to me. Just because we have a Gaelic language plan as a health board that does not at all mean that the board wishes to be associated in any way at all with the efforts which are being made in some quarters to keep the Gaelic language alive. We have an opportunity with a new bill on Scotland's languages to put to put anyone who still says things like that right to make clear that every public body does have its part to play in such efforts particularly in those areas where Gaelic is still strong. That is to say we need to mainstream Gaelic. If that word is to mean anything it must mean that we as a parliament think about the impact of all policies on the state of Gaelic. Not just those policies that deal with culture or education but policies on housing jobs and the local economy and that we consider for example the impact of policies on Gaelic when we are compiling impact assessments for the islands. We have an opportunity in a new bill to build on the work of 2005 and also to do something for Scots, my own mother tongue. We should recognise that Scots and Gaelic pose no threat to each other but are faced by a common challenge. It is high time we challenge displays of ignorance about the Scots language whether those appear in the media or in education or anywhere else. Presiding officer in conclusion I hope that every MSP and especially the new ones will take a moment to speak to the Parliament's Gaelic officers. Please take the opportunity to learn something about Gaelic. I think it's beautiful and interesting as you have ever heard or have perhaps yet to hear in your life. Thank you. Good afternoon. I live in Isla and I am learning Gaelic and now I'm a sporky at the BBC for 20 years. National Gaelic Language Plan and thank my colleague Alistair Allen for tabling this motion. My constituency Argyllun Bute, Land of the Gales, has the motto of Shays Air Corps, maintain our rights. This is exactly what I believe the National Gaelic Language Plan and forthcoming Scottish language bills should be doing. I grew up on the east coast of Scotland and was introduced to Gaelic by my hill climbing father. Drish, my first man row, the Thornbush or Bramble, Cairngorm, the Blue Cairn, Benny Hone, the Mossy hill. Neither of us had Gaelic, but the descriptive names of the hills and mountains we climbed embedded in me a connection of landscape and language. Cair is Cengar, a programme that my colleague Alistair starred in, if I remember correctly. Throughout my almost 20 years at BBC Scotland, the constant thread was Gaelic. I supported Gaelic programme makers as they created a wealth of output for the audience, for example Janish, Yorpa, Cyniwchmore and Mod. Programmes on radio and on television, giving gales of all ages a voice and giving Scotland programmes from a Gaelic perspective. What I learnt while at BBC Scotland and even more so now living on Islay is the rich array of Gaelic dialects across Scotland. Islay is famous for its good whisky or Ushgebeia me, whereas on Lewis it would be Ushgebeia ma. On Islay, A is E and this is the same in other areas of the Gaelic. Mainland Argyll Gaelic is different again, but with similarities to Islay Gaelic. Biel Hynch was a fantastic series that celebrated the variations across the Gaelic and these differences should be invested in, retained and supported. The motion notes that Gaelic is in a precarius position in vernacular communities across Scotland and it is, in my home village of Port Sceba or Port Charlotte, very few houses in the old village are occupied as permanent homes. I know a number of young people who have moved away because of the difficulty of getting on to the housing ladder. Mull and I owner community trust have just built two family homes which were hugely oversubscribed and The Open Times recently had a prominent article on the difficulty of local people or incoming key workers being able to acquire property, whereas Glasgow, as Alasgar was saying, is looking at opening a third and fourth Gaelic school. The Gaelic school in Inverness is full to capacity and Edinburgh is consulting on a new dedicated Gaelic school. No matter how much valuable work Borden and Gaelic do, they are working in an economic climate which sadly drives out young gales to the cities. It could be described as an economic clearances, but here we have an opportunity to use Gaelic and other Scots languages as economic stimulus. Give our wealth of languages and dialect the Scotland, the brand treatment to encourage folk to learn and use them so not only eat local but speak local. Schools across our Gaelin butte are providing pathways for learners and fluent speakers and we need to encourage primary schools to teach Gaelic and connect the older generations with the younger ones using language as the glue. Gaelic is one of Scotland's natural resources and the 2016 Visit Scotland Visitors Survey found that, with no prior promotion, 34 per cent of responders felt that Gaelic as a national language enhanced their visit to Scotland. Visit Scotland has built on this lure of language from visitors and launched its first Gaelic toolkit to help tourist businesses develop their Gaelic offering. I look forward to working with communities and other organisations to shape the next national Gaelic language plan to ensure that solutions across the Gaelic Act 2020 are found to maintain the land, the language and the people. I am grateful to Alastair Allen for securing this debate, especially this early in the new session of Parliament, which I feel highlights the urgency of many of the issues raised by him and no doubt by others. In the last session, there were several MSPs with all political stripes who were at the forefront of standing up for the Gaelic language and culture, including Alastair Allen, Rhoda Grant, John Finney and others. I am sure that new MSPs will be equally energetic, we have just heard from Jenny Minto for example. In the short time I have to speak, I want to highlight first and foremost that we are in an emergency situation. The social report referred to in the motion of last year made that clear and one of the points it makes, I think very powerfully, is that whilst a lot of people in the vernacular communities are able to speak Gaelic, they are not using it as much as we might expect, so there is no time to lose and that is a theme that I will return to. There have been a plethora of interesting proposals that have been put forward recently in terms of Gaelic. I welcome the work of the Board and the Gaelic in beginning its consultation on the next plan and indeed the on-going contributions from other groups, including Fation and Gael and Common Gaeloch, MG Alibar, Solmaros Teg and many others. But could I repeat this? We must act swiftly and effectively. I am a slightly nervous about setting up new organisations or new agencies, institutions, et cetera, not because of the laudable aims behind forming such bodies, but mainly because of the time it takes to consult on and set up such organisations given that we have so little time to lose. But as Alan Sturallan's motion notes, the social report identified the social use and transmission of Gaeloch is at the point of collapse with the numbers of Gaelic speakers falling considerably over time. With that said, I do note the comments that have been made by several academics, including Professor Rob Dunbar, Professor Wilson McLeod and others, that it is important to focus not just on the communities in the report that have around a quarter of Gaelic speakers, but there are other communities too. Arthur Cormack, who is well known to many of us, states that there are many types of Gaelic communities beyond the vernacular communities. And the point is this. This is not just about one type of Gaelic community set against another. We have to address the needs of all these communities. One area that deserves focus is the media. I think investment in Gaelic media should be improved. We see around £20 million being spent on Gaelic television and radio annually, and MG Alibos consistently argued for greater resources comparatively for the total budget for the Welsh speaking channel S4C in the last year was just over £95 million. Clearly, that is an area that should be looked at. The Scotland's Futures Forum reports that we must recognise that young people and children increasingly get their content from social media and streaming sites rather than traditional media, and that also I think should be looked at by government as part of a wider media strategy. And there is some optimism. We can't forget the welcome growth of learner and first language Gaelic speakers in Scotland's urban areas, and also the significant number of people learning Gaelic via apps like Duolingo. And there are many positive stories. I was taken by the academic's view that one of the ways of enhancing spaces for the language to be used are creation of physical spaces such as the Gaelic language centres and that they have an important role to play in looking more longer term. It's been argued that the Act could be strengthened and the reforms could be considered mentioned by Alasdraallan. Above all, an economic revival underpins a Gaelic revival, and that was a point made forcibly by Jenny Minter just now, and that we have to look at housing and health and the local economy and connectivity and transport connections, et cetera. But in conclusion, whilst there's a lot more I'd like to say, if there's one message that the new cabinet secretary, and I welcome her to her role in terms of Gaelic within her portfolio, there's one message that she takes away is that the task of revitalising Gaelic is very, very urgent, and there is no time to lose. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Thank you, and I now call Rhoda Grant, who's joining us remotely. Up to four minutes, please. Alasdraallan is on just but show a huckle. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I would like to thank Alasdraallan for bringing forward this debate and excuse my poor Gaelic in that introduction. It's timely, given the work that's taken place to consult and draft the new national plan for Gaelic. While there are disagreements about how we protect and increase Gaelic's speaking in our communities, I believe much of that stems from a real frustration regarding the decline of the language. That's not to say that the actions are wrong, but there have to be many, many more interventions at every level, and there has to also be a step change in support. I ask all of those with an interest to promote and protect Gaelic to set aside their differences and use their best endeavour to protect and grow the language. We need an ambitious plan. I see colleagues in Wales regularly legislating on Gaelic reviewing, renewing, setting new and challenging targets, while here in Scotland the Government seems to ignore and underfund. The board has faced a cut in real terms of over 30 per cent of their budget in the last decade. In the 22 years of this Parliament, we've legislated only once. In 15 years of SNP government, we have done nothing but cut funding. The Government also adds in a silo that ignore the fact that Gaelic is dying because Gaelic-speaking communities are dying, and often that is at their hands, centralising jobs away from the vernacular communities. How many Gaelic-speaking families will be taken from the Western Isles by the ill-advised Scottish Government plan to centralise air traffic control to Inverness? To survive, these communities need jobs and they need homes, as well as access to Gaelic education and the ability to speak the language in everyday life. Government and their agencies must enable interaction to happen in Gaelic and to ensure that that is the first language of interaction in the vernacular communities. They must expand those communities in line with the investment of language. Both science and branding are all good and well, however they do nothing to develop one more Gaelic speaker. In the Western Isles and the Gaelic-speaking areas in the west of Scotland, the Government must ensure that education and public interaction is in Gaelic. They must fund the board adequately to allow them to carry out their role, but they must also empower them to do that. A review and renewal of the Gaelic language act is now urgently required to enable that to happen. However, the development of Gaelic does not fall to the board alone. Councils, Government and agencies need to step up and take leadership. If we do not, Gaelic will be lost as a language for daily communication. This has already happened in huge swathes of Scotland, leading to the loss of culture, history and heritage. We have to remember that the history of the common people is handed down through stories, poetry and songs, and all that is lost to the up-and-coming generation for the languages being lost. Yes, we need it in the classroom, but we also need it in the community. I urge the Government to look to Wales, to look to its ambition and to equal it. We need an overarching policy to also empower communities to take the lead and fund communities to lead that development. That is not a power struggle. We require everyone to do their bit to protect and expand the use of Gaelic. It was the language of Scotland and indeed into the north of England as well. Our aim and our ambition must be to reinstate Gaelic as the language at home, at work and at play—a language that has equal status to English. Thank you. I now call Ariane Burgess, who is making her first speech to our Parliament. I thank Alice Drallon for bringing this important member's debate to the chamber on the national Gaelic language plan. I am aware that it has been a long day if the Deputy Presiding Officer will allow me, as this is my first speech in the chamber as a recently elected MSP for the Highlands and Islands. I would like to take a few moments to thank everyone who campaigned with and voted for me, especially my partner, Eddie Cude, who continues to support me as I find my way in this new role. I want to thank my predecessor, John Finnie, who was a champion for Gaelic and who did good work in this chamber. Among his many activities, the one that stands out for me is that he secured equal protection from assault for the children of Scotland with his equal protection member's bill, which became an act in the last session. This last year has brought many challenges to our shores, none that we could have imagined and brought to light fragility across our society, but it also brought out the best of the people across this country and in the Highlands and Islands and rekindled the community spirit that is still strong in the region as neighbours helped neighbours and communities found creative ways to ensure everyone was looked after. I look forward to meeting, working with and representing people from all parts of the region, both as their MSP and the green spokesperson for communities, housing, land reform and rural affairs. I also want to declare an interest in this debate as a Gaelic learner and an ant to a niece and nephew who attend a Gaelic medium school in Edinburgh. Tonight's debate is close to my heart. My great-grandfather, who was from Edinburgh, was a Gaelic speaker, but I grew up without it and got the message not so much from my family, but from wider society that the language had no use. I now know that not to be the case. And like Jenny Minto, I experience the landscape and the language as something together and that the language opens the landscape for me. I will be as active as I can in this session to ensure speakers, learners, educators and academics are given the support required to move the language to a stronger footing. One quarter of Gaelic speakers live in various Hebridean communities within the Highlands and Islands and Alistair Allans motion raises the grave concern of the precariousness of the language in these communities. The perspective that I want to bring to this debate is that with the launch of Borschnigalic's consultation events on the national Gaelic language plan and a promised Scottish languages bill to be brought forward in this session, we have a great opportunity to take the next steps to ensure Gaelic has a future that will be heard hundreds of years from today. To do this, we must recognise that Gaelic is also vibrant in the lowlands where approximately half of Gaelic speakers live and take an approach that supports the thriving of the language in all places where people speak it or learning it. I am calling for a nuanced approach that we need to see that it is Scotland's language and have the right funding supports in place and the right resources as needed. As a Gaelic learner, I have become part of a community of people from across Scotland and the world who take the role of learning seriously. Today, I heard from my Salomor Osteig course speaking partner that she plans to continue studying and hopes to find a place in a Gaelic medium education school in Glasgow. She is originally from Europe. Another person I've been learning with has decided to leave his stable career and take on learning Gaelic full-time because he wants to be a carrier of the language. A third person, a young American, hopes to find his way to sky to study in depth. There is an outpouring of enthusiasm and interest for Gaelic now and we must find ways to make it easier for people of all ages to access it. My sense is that Gaelic at the moment is like a tiny little glowing ember in a fire and it's that moment for those of you who light fires where you're not quite sure whether that ember is going to take or just go out. We must absolutely grab this opportunity with this new language plan and this Scottish languages bill that's to come forward and fan the flames of the fire. During the campaign, what I learned is that while there is a lot of good and we've heard about that from my colleagues in the chamber tonight in place and a lot of people working to ensure Gaelic's future, it is very fragile and delicate but I think we need to support Gaelic across the country and make sure that we support people in the creation of place because it's not just about the language, it's the culture, it's the community and we have the power to support people in that way. So for example in Edinburgh at the moment the council is considering a location for a new GME high school. The SNP promised in their manifesto a centrally located site for this school. Right now the council has been considering a location that's not centrally located and what I understand from my design and community work is that where you place buildings helps community to grow. So if we create large space and making it difficult for people to travel across from the primary school to the high school, we're not creating the potential for that fire. So when you build a fire you need to put your twigs together so the flame catches light and moves through the fire. So I think we need to be looking at not just the education plans but also the buildings and the structures and how we bring people together to create that community that underpins the language. So I look forward to working with my colleagues in this coming session to ensure that Gaelic will flourish and that we know and we can ensure that our descendants will be hearing it and speaking it in hundreds of years to come. Thank you and I now call Stuart McMillan who's joining us remotely up to four minutes please Mr McMillan. Thank you very much to the deputy secretary to Dr Alasdor Allan on securing this important debate and I do know it's an issue that's close to his heart as well as being vitally important for his constituency. I'd also like to thank those who have provided the briefings for today's debate. I'm going to focus my remarks on a constituency issue that has arisen within the last two weeks. Inverclyde has a Gaelic medium education unit at Winhill Primary School in Greenock and the school came through to the Parliament in the last session to highlight the vast range of multilingual teaching that they undertake. The pupils themselves were a credit to the school and also to Inverclyde in addition to themselves and for many years the pupils would have had a placing request to the Glasgow Gaelic school for their secondary education and this has always been granted that this has become a problem this year due to the continual increasing demand for Gaelic medium education in Glasgow but thankfully for the P7W pupils they will be getting the secondary education at the Glasgow Gaelic school. As a letter from Professor O'Geligan and Ian Campbell and I apologise for the pronunciations from the University of the Highlands and Islands clearly described, the actions of the Gaelic act have had positive outcomes however and I quote from the letter the demand is now outstripping supply of experienced and competent teachers and inadequate Gaelic school infrastructure. I welcome the additional demand for primary school Gaelic education up 79 per cent. I welcome the additional demand for secondary school Gaelic education up 48 per cent. I would like more young people to actually have this opportunity but it is clear that the situation facing the transition secondary schools is now challenging. I have had positive dialogue with both Inverclyde council and Glasgow city council and I would like to thank them for that but I do know that there is no quick solution and as a newcomer to raising an issue affecting the Gaelic language I do realise that there are many challenges facing the long-term future of the language. I also realise that the relevant number of experienced and competent teachers are not currently available however it is clear that additional activity needs to be undertaken try and resolve this. I would like to highlight just two questions that I would like the cabinet secretary to consider. Firstly, what actions does the Scottish Government are considering to aid local authorities with a tradition in primary Gaelic medium education to help them to provide suitable secondary Gaelic medium education if the demand from parents exists? Secondly, the demand from parents exists where the Scottish Government helps local authorities to provide secondary Gaelic medium education covering multiple authorities without the need for placing requests, i.e. in effect, something akin to a shared service routine local authorities. I accept that if there are positive opportunities to the two questions that I just posed that the shortage of teachers as has already been indicated may still be prohibitive but notwithstanding if local authorities were able to do this with Government assistance it may help in the short to medium term, that is why cross boundary demand secondary Gaelic medium education. I would also like to encourage anyone with an interest to get involved in the border gales consultation events on the next national Gaelic language plan even though I don't speak Gaelic but did study French and German at school and also in university. I do appreciate how important language provision is to ensure that our country has the broadest possible outlook and opportunities for future generations. Inverclyde also has a rich Gaelic history regards the people and traditions that came to Inverclyde in the past and I am keen to see that those traditions continue for many generations to come and once again I do welcome this debate and I do thank Dr Allan for bringing it to the Parliament. Thank you. Thank you Ms McMillan and our last speaker in the open debate will be Sarah Boyack up to four minutes please. I too want to congratulate Alasdair Allan for his success in securing this prized members business slot and I agree that there is much to be proud of since the establishment of our Parliament in terms of a higher profile for the Gaelic language, for investment in Gaelic medium education and Gaelic broadcasting through Radio Nang Gael and BBC Alba, but as Alasdair Allan and other members have highlighted eloquently last year's report was worrying as it concluded that without radical action Gaelic would be dead within a decade and Rhoda Grant and Jenny Minto made powerful speeches about the need for economic support in traditional Gaelic communities and I also want to thank the academics who have been in touch this week with their insight on what needs to be done now. I want to focus on the national Gaelic language plan and the consultation and highlight the current challenge in Edinburgh with the issue of supporting Gaelic medium education now and going forward. Firstly, we need to ensure that we have enough Gaelic teachers so that Gaelic medium education can be delivered right across all topics including maths and science and as Arian Burge has mentioned the SNP election manifesto promised a new city centre school in Edinburgh it caught people by surprise and it cut right across the current council plans for a new school at Liberton and timing is critical because parents need to know that there's going to be capacity available in the city for Gaelic medium education going forward and the council's about to consult on its plans for the new Gaelic medium school at Liberton, two separate schools being managed by two head teachers and there's a challenge now because James Gillespie's got an issue about capacity hence the council's plans to increase capacity in the short term at Daraque so it'll be really interesting to hear from the cabinet secretary today for some clarity about the SNP manifesto proposal is it going to be dropped or promoted what city centre site was that they have in mind and was it to be planned and funded centrally because it's absolutely crucial that we have the quality Gaelic medium education that our city needs and that we have support for the Gaelic language right across Scotland. I'm glad that Alistair Allen also mentioned the scots language I was going to apologise and ask if I'd sneak it in at the end of this debate and our vice campaigners didn't want to divert attention away from Alistair's Gaelic language debate but they wanted to use the opportunity of raising the issue for more being done by the Scottish Government in the context of the upcoming Scottish languages bill so again it'd be really helpful if the cabinet secretary would clarify what legislative measures the government is considering on scots alongside the important work raised right across the chamber for supporting our Gaelic language thank you Presiding Officer thank you and I now call on Shirley-Anne Somerville cabinet secretary to wind up the debate up to seven minutes please thank you very much uh Presiding Officer can I thank Dr Allen for bringing forward the motion today and welcome the opportunity to conclude this debate my first opportunity within my new portfolio responsibilities which obviously includes the Gaelic and Scots can I also congratulate Arena Burgess for her first speech to Parliament and to welcome her here I'm sure it will be the first of many on this and other important subjects and I look forward to be able to to debate and to work with her over the coming years at the outset let me indicate my support for the motion and in particular the aim that public policy could and should do more to support and protect the Gaelic language as the chamber is aware the Scottish government has never shied away from its responsibilities to promote and support Gaelic Gaelic remains a priority for the Scottish government and our very clear aim is to see an increase in the number of speaking learning and very importantly using the Gaelic language in Scotland the national Gaelic language plan is in an important document in the support of the Gaelic language it offers a framework for all public bodies to consider how their actions and policies impact on Gaelic language communities support for the Gaelic language is not just a task for government or for Bordna Gaelic I think we all recognise that a wide range of bodies can and do make a contribution to supporting Gaelic in many sectors this must and will continue and if possible of course we must encourage them to strengthen that work I would like to offer the reassurance that the Scottish government will play our part in this process we have as some people have mentioned already an ambitious set of manifesto commitments and we will do more for Gaelic in Scotland as we make progress with those commitments amongst those commitments for Gaelic we'll explore the creation of a recognised Gaelic to raise the levels of language competence and use in the home and the community and I look forward to working with people across the chamber and of course much further afield to work on the details of how we can take that forward we also recognise that help is needed to stem depopulation and we will establish an islands bond offering 100 bonds of up to £50,000 to young people and families to stay in or to move to islands currently threatened by depopulation the bonds will support people to buy homes start businesses and otherwise make their lives for the long term in these communities in addition we will give local authorities the powers to manage the number of second homes in their area and we'll work with community land Scotland so we can find the right land to deliver more housing in our rural areas many speakers tonight have quite rightly mentioned the issue of education and also within our commitments is an approach to a new strategic approach to Gaelic medium education and that deals with many issues but also does include the issue that Stuart Millan raised around the number of teachers that are available for Gaelic medium education and that's something which I'm very keen again to work with members across the chamber as they will have their own local views for how this can best be taken forward in their different constituencies. Sarah Boyack, Annadine Darae and a Burgess, I think, as well mentioned the issue of Gaelic medium education in Edinburgh. I do understand that Edinburgh are planning the consultation to come forward on a site. I think that this is the right thing to do they are obliged to take consultation process forward. I'm sure they will no doubt hear strong representations from parents about their wishes to take forward this or other projects in the city and I look forward to working with the City of Edinburgh council to move forward with a school in Edinburgh that will allow the flourishing of the Gaelic language and that is a very important commitment that we will continue to make to Edinburgh. My predecessor, the Deputy First Minister, launched and chaired the Gaelic Faster Rate of Progress initiative, which brought together a number of bodies that support Gaelic in different sectors. I aim to continue that initiative and look forward to building on that work. Throughout Scotland there have been significant investment in Gaelic projects and in island communities they have participated and benefited from them. There is still the potential for growth and the development of Gaelic in island communities and we must maintain that momentum by supporting and building on the policies and progress that are in place if they are effective in our outcomes that we wish to see. For the future of Gaelic we need a strong focus on both our towns and on our areas of low population. Many of the Gaelic initiatives that are in place are of equal benefit to both urban and rural environments and both contexts support each other often. We also need to value both speakers and learners of Gaelic as speakers have mentioned tonight and the context and the networks in which they will use the language. In areas of low population we need to be exceptionally mindful that wider issues such as employment, economy, housing and infrastructure also make an essential contribution to the Gaelic task and this again has been raised quite rightly by members today. This is a really important emphasis that features prominently in the faster rate of growth. There is no fixed blueprint for Gaelic. We all recognise that different situations have different needs, again something that has come across from the different speakers tonight. We need to make sure that we are listening to all ages and addressing the needs of Gaelic learners as well as Gaelic speakers' influent communities. Another point to remember is that any comparison with the past demonstrates good progress for Gaelic. There is more Gaelic activity in place now and more Gaelic funding than there ever has been. Our task is to ensure that the projects that we put in place, as I said, are effective and are increasing the numbers learning, speaking and using Gaelic. An important point for us is that Gaelic development is not static, there is no status quo. Gaelic continues to be active in many sectors and it is developing and new projects are being put in place, but we have to ensure that we keep moving forward and building on the initiatives in place. We in the Scottish Government will add to the valuable work being done with the new commitments that I have mentioned and more. Another point is that we must all work together. The Gaelic world is too small for division and we must collaborate and cooperate to achieve the progress that we want to see. Again, there are many fantastic examples of that. We are seeing collaborative working around early years support and for parents between Argyll and Bute, Cymru Llaniel and Shear and Highland councils. That will go some way to reverse the impact of Covid on parental confidence. The Scottish Government has also provided funding support to ensure that there are more Gaelic development officers in communities. Gordon Gaelic has invested in support for the network of officers. In nine weeks, we will see the release of Speak Gaelic, which aims to enable increased numbers of people learning Gaelic and motivating existing speakers to use and improve their language. The Scottish Government is proud to support MgAlpa with this multi-platformed project. Presiding Officer, there is much to do. As speakers have mentioned, tonight's time is critical on this. There are good initiatives in place and I am happy to continue the work on this but recognise the call that has come from across the chamber to do more, to do it quickly and to assure that we are supporting people who want to support the Gaelic language. On that basis, I am happy to support the motion and I look forward to building on and adding to what we have in place to make further progress. Importantly, this is a new responsibility for me. I will absolutely do so by listening to and working with the communities that I will seek to represent as I move forward with my work on this area. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. That concludes the debate and I close this meeting.