 Felly, mae'r defnyddio gyda rhoi yn sicr arfer o'r gwrsion gwneud. To ask the Scottish Government what additional financial support it is provided to Westloadding Council to recruit additional teachers in line with the Government's policy in class sizes. Minister, Alison Thlym. The Scottish Government has provided a total of 51 million pounds in the currently financial year to maintain teacher numbers and pupil teacher ratios across Scotland. That is a central element of our priority to raise attainment and deliver the best outcomes for all of our children. Maintaining teacher numbers will clearly have an impact on class sizes. £41 million of the sum referred to has been released in the local government settlement and West Lothian Council's share of that is £1.604 million. The additional £10 million will be available when the teacher and pupil censuses are published and we have ascertained whether local authorities have met the teacher numbers commitment. West Lothian Council's indicative share of that is £382,000. Neil Findlay I am surprised that the cabinet secretary is not here to answer that question, but West Lothian Council will have had its budget savaged by the government to the tune of £89 million by 2016-17. To meet the cabinet secretary's demand on teacher numbers, the council needs 42 more teachers. It has additional funding for a grand total of seven. Does the minister know which services in her own constituency the cabinet secretary suggests are cut to meet those grossly underfunded demands? As I have indicated for West Lothian, which is what the question was about, £382,000 was the indicative figure from that additional £10 million. I mentioned the £10 million because it was the figure that COSLA itself requested and the figure that was provided. As far as the hard choices that the member puts to me about competitive budgets, it would be nice once in a while, given the way that this Government is protecting the share of money that goes to local government, it would be nice once in a while if the member asked a few questions about why it is that the Scottish Government finds itself with declining budgets every year. To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the European Commission and what was discussed. The Scottish Government regularly meets with the Commission, including through our frequent attendance at European Council. For example, Richard Lochhead met the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan. At 20 April, Agriculture and Fisheries Council, Commissioner Hogan will also be visiting Scotland in June. On 19 May, I attended the Culture and Audiovisual Council, where I led for the UK Government in preliminary discussion of the digital single market, as it affects audiovisual markets, where the Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Gunther Oughton, made a presentation on the digital single market strategy. Next week, Roseanna Cunningham will participate in a panel discussion in Brussels concerning how to address unemployment in the EU alongside Marianne Tyson, the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, and, next week, Richard Lochhead will also participate in a panel discussion alongside Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Carmen Ovello, during Green Week 2015. Can I welcome the leadership that the Scottish Government has shown on the transatlantic trade and investment partnership in calling for greater transparency within the T-TIP negotiations and calling for a double lock to be enshrined into the agreement, which will explicitly exempt the NHS? Can I ask the cabinet secretary to give an assurance that she will continue to make representations to the European Commission to ensure that the Scottish Government is not at the mercy of any future legal action if it decides to act to protect our national health service and other vital public services in Scotland? Yes, and I recognise the member's continuing interest in the issue that the Scottish Government will continue to press the case for the commission and the UK Government for an explicit protection for the NHS and other vital public services on the face of any agreement. We will also argue for the right for the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament to regulate in the public interest without fear of legal action. Following her helpful response to the European and External Relations Committee's report on T-TIP arrangements that are being made for Scottish ministers to meet with Trade Commissioner Mellstrom to discuss T-TIP and seek assurances on precisely those important matters. To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Communities and Pensions rights last met the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Presiding Officer, I, along with the Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training, have written to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions concerning the range of issues that span across our portfolio areas. I look forward to receiving his reply and discussing some of those very important issues together. I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions myself formally. Linda Fabiani, I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer and can I ask that when the cabinet secretary does meet his counterparts in Westminster that, due to consistent refused attendance by the appropriate secretary's estate ministers to the welfare reform committee during the last Westminster Government, will he impress upon his counterparts the need to attend the devolution of further powers committee to properly discuss benefits to be devolved to Scotland? I am more than happy to do that because respect is a two-way process. They require respect from us and we require respect from them. One of the issues that we will be dealing with in respect and I am keen to make sure that the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions adheres to the spirit of the recent settlement on devolution in terms of the transfer of welfare powers, as well as to the letter of what will become the law. To ask the Scottish Government what can be done to improve road safety on the A92 in North East Fife. Over £24 million has been invested in the A92 since 2007 to ensure that it is well maintained and operates safely. Our operating company, Bear Scotland, has completed a route accident reduction plan report covering the A92 between Halbeath and Aetero bridge. The aim of the report was to develop a prioritised list of improvements to the A92 and those will enhance road safety. Many of those safety improvements that are identified in the report have already been delivered and others are programmed for this financial year. We continue to assess the safety performance of the A92 alongside other trunk road routes on an annual basis and to look to improve the safety of the route to support anticipated traffic levels. I thank the minister for that answer. The minister will be aware that transport officials recently visited Fruci in my constituency where there have been two fatalities in recent months to witness traffic flow and behaviour. Although an options report for improvements that could be made to this stretch of road is yet to be published shortly, there is concern about the financial constraints that might impact on that report. Will the minister agree to meet me following publication to discuss the report further? Yes, of course. I am happy to meet the member. I have other meetings arranged in terms of concerns on the route. Following the publication of this report, I will be happy to review the road safety recommendations, including those at Fruci. The Scottish Government will continue, of course, to make all appropriate actions to maintain and safely operate the A92 corridor. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what impact expects replacing the ScotRail club 55 scheme with the club 50, which will have a number of older travellers—what effect it will have on a number of older travellers from Highland using the services? For the question, club 55 has been withdrawn by ScotRail, and club 50 is a completely new scheme being introduced by ScotRail. Promotional fares are a commercial matter for the operator, and the Scottish Government does not specify or regulate promotional fares. That said, club 50 is open to all travellers, 50 and over, and will offer substantially discounted off-peak rail travel on all routes, on all days right across Scotland. By comparison, club 55 was only available for limited times during the year, and we anticipate that the club 50 scheme, together with a range of new ticket offers such as advanced purchase tickets from £5 between any two Scottish cities, will lead to an increased number of older travellers from all areas, including the Highlands, using ScotRail services. We recognise that there may be a few instances where individuals who did benefit under club 55 could be disadvantaged, and we have therefore asked ScotRail to look at that specifically, while the club 55 name will no longer be used. ScotRail planned to offer similar discounted ticket offers in the future, aimed directly to the club 55 audience. Thank you for speaking on behalf of older travellers. I had to point out that you could walk up, show proof of age, get on an off-peak train within the month. Club 50 needs annual membership fees, all tickets reserved in advance and online and subject to availability. That seems to me to be a very different level of service, which disadvantages long-distance travellers, because we do not know what the figures were for ScotRail and the data of the numbers who used that. Can we have some idea about what a bellio has done to ask the travelling public, if it thinks that this is a better scheme, because it could impact on older travellers using the railways at all? No judgments on the age of Rob Gibson or, indeed, to define members of the public who are 50 or over as old. However, what I will expect ScotRail to do is to promote the new scheme, to get an understanding of usage and to reach the targets that we have set out in the key performance indicators. Of course, there are penalties if they do not reach that, but I want them to use the information sensitively to ensure, particularly at off-peak periods, that we maximise the use of the ever-increasingly popular railways and support those 50 and older to make the best advantage of the fantastic routes that we have. We will certainly share any information that I have with Rob Gibson and any other interested member. To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to assist people who aspire to home ownership. The Scottish Government has a number of initiatives in place to support people into home ownership. Those include support for people with lower incomes to buy houses through our low-cost initiative for first-time buyers lift schemes, including £70 million for 2015-16 to help first-time buyers through the open market share equity scheme. We are also providing help through the £305 million help to buy Scotland and small developer schemes and from initiatives like a rural rent-to-buy pilot operating in the highlands. We are also working with lenders and industry, including homes for Scotland, to consider the need for future support for home buyers and the housing market. Alex Johnson? I thank the minister for her answer, but given that the main help to buy scheme budget has been cut this year, is the minister surprised to discover that the scheme ran out of money a full seven weeks earlier than it did last year? Is it her intention to see that budget reduced still further in years to come and wouldn't it simply be easier for this Government to decide that it doesn't support those who aspire to home ownership and give up altogether? I say to the member that this Government does assist those into home ownership, and I have already outlined just exactly how we are doing that. In terms of the help to buy scheme, the scheme was always a demand-led scheme and also a cash-limited scheme. The industry asked us for £225 million. To date, we have provided £305 million. Initially, the industry reckoned that we would get 4,500 people into home ownership through the scheme, and we are currently estimating by the end of the scheme 7,500 people assisted. The Government supports home ownership and has a number of schemes available to do it and continues to work with the industry towards that. John Scott? The minister will be aware of the growing problem of people on interest-only mortgages being invited to pay them back by their mortgage provider and perhaps becoming homeless as a result as they have insufficient funds to repay those mortgages. Is the Government content with the schemes to support such people and is there anything further envisaged to help people who find themselves in this predicament? The Government has already looked at the Homeowners Support Fund to take in cases like that, where it is interest-only mortgages and where someone at the end of it finds himself potentially in debt. The scheme is already looking at that and we are looking at it further and we have taken that into account and we continue to monitor that to look at the numbers that may fall into that situation. Question 8, Neil Bibby. To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde regarding a provision of emergency eye care. Cabinet Secretary, Shona Robison? The planning and provision of services to local people are matters for local health boards, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, taking into account national guidance, local service needs and priorities for investment. Neil Bibby. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. I have recently been contacted by a constituent, Mr Kenny Caffrey, from Paisley, who regularly needs hospital eye care treatment and has raised concerns about the implications of recent changes in the Clyde area to emergency eye care and inconveniences that could cause to him and other patients. I will write to the cabinet secretary on Mr Caffrey's behalf. Can I ask the cabinet secretary for her views on how we improve emergency eye care and how we can best use improvements in electronic referrals to improve emergency eye care? I will also write to Neil Bibby with the particular issues in relation to his constituent, but I can tell him that I am aware that in April the board introduced a new short ophthalmology appointment system across the Clyde area. In any patient who has experience in eye problem can attend their community optometrists or GP who can then refer them should they feel it necessary that a patient can be seen in a hospital setting by an ophthalmologist. I understand from the board that this system is already successfully in place across Greater Glasgow and has seen a major reduction in waiting times and quicker access to treatment within Glasgow, and it is hoped that that will offer the same benefits to patients in Clyde. However, as I said earlier, if Neil Bibby wants to write to me about the circumstances of the particular patient, I will make sure that he gets a detailed reply. To ask the Scottish Government how many deaf people have undertaken a modern apprenticeship in the last five years. The information that SDS publish is not broken down by type of disability. The member will also be aware that information on individuals taking part in a modern apprenticeship is gathered on the basis of self-declaration and therefore may be an under-representation of the true picture. However, SDS is currently undertaking a data matching exercise that will provide an indication of the potential under-reporting of disability and other health factors. That is in its final stages and will provide a more accurate picture of disability participation in the programme. In addition, the £500,000 funding to SDS announced in this Parliament on 13 May will support the final development and delivery of an equality action plan for MAs and will include specific improvement targets for disabled participation. Can I apologise for my voice? It was very attractive, Mark Griffin. I thank the cabinet secretary for struggling through that answer. I welcome the investigation into further statistics, but from the statistics we do have. We know that the proportion of school leavers who enter the job market in comparison to the hearing population is particularly low. Given that an apprenticeship is one of the best ways of doing that, how does the Scottish Government plan on improving deaf awareness of employers of apprentices and increasing the number of deaf apprentices on the whole? There are a number of different initiatives that are already in place to help this. There is a template for success, which is a specific SDS initiative, and that is particularly aimed at post-school transition for deaf young people. There is careers information and guidance workshops, which will highlight through the Commonwealth apprenticeship initiative and are dealt with through the hearing impairment unit at St. Roch's School in Glasgow. That is particularly targeted towards deaf young people. There are also equalities-funded programmes that are targeted particularly to those with disabilities, which will also include deaf young people. The member will be aware of some of the concerns around the proposals from Westminster that may cap access to work provision that would particularly impact deaf young people, and we are talking to DWP about that. There are other specific projects that are also funded by the Scottish Government, including a deaf action project and a deaf connections project. There are specific projects that us specifically defined for getting young deaf people into employment. The difficulty with the modern apprenticeship programme is that we leave it entirely up to young people to choose whether or not to declare themselves as having a disability. I have certainly spoken to young people who have said to me that they would not and did not declare themselves so. To ask the Scottish Government what recourse is available to tenants in the social rented sector to believe that their housing association rent cannot be considered an affordable rent. The social landlords in Scotland have a responsibility to set rents and service charges in a way that balances the level and cost of services provided with affordability for tenants. Landlords also need to demonstrate transparency in how rents are calculated and have a legal duty under the Housing Scotland Act 2001 to consult with tenants and register tenant organisations about rent increases. I point out one additional problem for constituents of mine who are on housing benefit and seek employment. When housing benefit is withdrawn, rents can be challenging to pay, which can be a disincentive to employment and fuel inward poverty and can encourage the Scottish Government to examine potential solutions to that significant problem. If anyone in the social sector housing is struggling to pay their rent, they should speak to their landlord as soon as possible, and they might wish to seek independent advice. Affordability of rents is important to the social rented sector and to the Scottish Government, and we certainly do not want to see any disincentive to tenants going into work. Thank you. Before we move to the next site of business, members will wish to join me in welcoming to the gallery Mr Jan Pumans, the Speaker of the Flemish Parliament.