Hansard

Presiding Officer,

“’S ged a dh’ fheuch iad ri cur às dhuinn,
Chì mo theaghlach cnoc nan linn.
’S ged tha ar cànan leòint’ le strì,
San tìr seo bidh i beò.”

The member continued in English:

“Although they tried to destroy us,
My children will see the landscape of generations.
Although our language has been wounded in its struggle,
In this land she will live on.”

As I close the debate, I want to stress at the outset that my primary concern throughout this process has been to progress the bill on a cross-party basis. There have been keen advocates for the bill in every party that is represented here today. The Conservatives can be proud that theirs was the party that first introduced the very concept of Gaelic-medium education. Labour—with, I think, some support from the Lib Dems—can be proud that it introduced the bill that became the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005. My party has led on work in this area, too, and I have been grateful for the support of the Scottish Greens.

I said in answer to a previous intervention that there are voters across Scotland who use Gaelic as their everyday language—who live, breathe and work in the language. I know from speaking to them that it matters intensely to them that they have representatives who not only reflect their values and concerns in the political sphere but realise how precious their language is.

I am therefore grateful to members who have risen to the challenge of ensuring that the bill truly is a national endeavour, with representation, participation and contributions from every party. I am particularly grateful to Miles Briggs, who assumed responsibility for the bill after it was introduced.

The bill is a milestone and a marker of the progress that we are making. I, too, give my enormous thanks to the bill team and to the Government team, who are sitting up the back of the chamber and are, I hope, looking forward to an early night tonight after working extremely hard for about 18 months.

In debates about our languages, it is very difficult not to look back and forward. Language study and historical analysis show that, when the frontier of a Gaelic-speaking community—or, indeed, a Scots-speaking community—has receded, there is no evidence yet that it has recovered. My forebears hail from the Applecross peninsula. Some Gaelic can be heard there today, but it certainly does not have the same vibrancy as it did when I was a child. When speakers pass on, pass away and take with them the rich cultural heritage of a language, we lose something as a nation, unless it is passed on to the next generation.

I will also look to the future. As I think Ross Greer said, Gaelic and Scots are our languages. They are Scotland’s languages—they are nobody else’s languages. If we cannot protect and nurture them, nobody else will, so it is up to us.

The consultation responses and the evidence received on the bill have been enormously helpful. I smiled when Michael Marra—or perhaps it was Willie Rennie—talked about the fact that, occasionally, he was glad that the committee witnesses were separated. However, that speaks to the strength of feeling about language and the value of diversity and debate—and sometimes dispute—about the best way forward. It is because we care about the languages that we debate them, and it is in the debate that we have that democratic representation. As I said to Pam Duncan-Glancy in relation to her amendments in the first group, I applaud the debate that we have on language, and I am thankful for members’ participation in it.

Willie Rennie and Michael Marra both talked about the fact that legislation has limits. I would be the first to recognise that we cannot legislate language into existence. If language is truly a living, breathing medium of communication, it has to be about more than what Governments and Parliaments pass in the form of legislation.

I have been somewhat preoccupied by the bill, but, on Friday, I met members of the short-life working group on social and economic opportunities for Gaelic and stressed to them that our focus will be on implementing the recommendations that they made in their brilliant report. The areas that they raised are the very areas on which Parliament has been inviting me to go further. There are questions about population retention and infrastructure, housing, transport, digital connectivity, education, jobs and key sectors. Those are all the things that bring our communities to life, irrespective of where they are.

Those things are critically important for strengthening Gaelic because, ultimately, language is about the people. We talk about Gaelic and Scots as if they are tangible assets that are independent of people, but, ultimately, it is about the speakers, how they prosper and are successful, and how their wellbeing is taken into account. I would very much like to continue the cross-party consensus that we have achieved through the bill and to work with members to implement the recommendations that the short-life working group identified as critically important.

I will touch briefly on the points that Roz McCall made about local government, because she is absolutely right. Particularly in the discussions about areas of linguistic significance, we considered whether central Government should direct and mandate or whether there should be an iterative process with our local authorities. Our local authorities are key in taking responsibility and reflecting local diverse needs.

I have spoken to the three primary local authorities for Gaelic—Argyll and Bute Council, Highland Council and Western Isles Council—on which there is a variety of political representation. I want to work with them at pace to understand not just what will be expected of them but how we support them to take forward that work.

Presiding Officer, I have forgotten how much time you gave me, but I want to take a few more seconds to say that one of the biggest changes in the bill relates to education. Although we are focusing on community, we know that, for young people, learning the language and being able to study in their native tongue in school is critical.

The bill strengthens Gaelic-medium education considerably. The provision of Gaelic-medium education by an education authority can fulfil the foundational duty in our education law to provide adequate and efficient education. Authorities may consider that providing only Gaelic-medium education is appropriate in certain areas. Indeed, that is almost happening right now, but that will be the case in an area of linguistic significance where there is a high proportion of Gaelic speakers. An authority would be required to satisfy itself that, in doing so, it would be complying with its wider legal duties.

I started my speech with a quote from Rory and Calum MacDonald of Runrig, which ends on the point that she will live on in this land. That is the choice that we will make by passing the bill, and it is the choice that I hope that all future generations will make, because we should not squander the value, the heritage, the culture and the wealth in our language.