Committee
Education, Culture and Sport Committee, 14 Jan 2003
14 Jan 2003 · S1 · Education, Culture and Sport Committee
Item of business
McCrone Agreement
Far be it from me to defend the convener, who is probably big enough—although certainly not ugly enough—to do so herself. However, it is entirely unjustified and wrong for the member to misquote the convener and then to provide a flawed analysis of the reasons for our taking—or being about to take—the decision that we are going to take. I heard every member of the committee say that time prohibits us from carrying out a comprehensive review and analysis of the McCrone settlement. I am talking about not just a statement of the current position, but an analysis of what has gone wrong—assuming that things have gone wrong and that difficulties have been experienced at local level—the nature of those problems, how they arose and how we resolve them. I am not interested in doing a quick, half-hearted piece of work that fails to examine all the issues.Brian Monteith said that he raised this issue previously. Quite legitimately, members made the point that the McCrone settlement is not particularly new. There are issues that need to be worked through and milestones that must be achieved. That does not close the door on our conducting a review, but the practical issue is that the committee will meet only 10 times before dissolution. This is not the right point at which to undertake a comprehensive analysis of some of the complicated issues that arise.
In the same item of business
The Convener:
Lab
I ask Brian Monteith to introduce the correspondence that members have received from him.
Mr Monteith:
Con
The purpose of my letter was to give the committee the opportunity to consider how to deal with continuing communication to members, through e-mails and tele...
Michael Russell:
SNP
I have some sympathy with Brian Monteith's request—the McCrone agreement is central to the future of Scottish education. However, time is against us. The com...
Jackie Baillie:
Lab
There is little to disagree with in Mike Russell's remarks. In the short time available before the election, the committee could not do the McCrone agreement...
Cathy Peattie (Falkirk East) (Lab):
Lab
I agree with Jackie Baillie and Michael Russell. It would be valuable to look at the McCrone agreement, but it is still being implemented and much work remai...
Ian Jenkins:
LD
I agree. The issue merits something better than we could manage in the time available. The committee could only do something superficial, which is not the ri...
Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP):
SNP
My views are similar to those of other members. I understand that the Auditor General for Scotland has an investigation of McCrone as part of his work progra...
The Convener:
Lab
I have done some background work on the agreement, and Irene McGugan is almost right: the Accounts Commission for Scotland has the agreement in its proposed ...
Mr Monteith:
Con
I am rather disappointed with members' unanimous view that we should not proceed with my request. In a sense, the rationale seems to be that it might have be...
The Convener:
Lab
With all due respect, the letter that you have submitted does not seek a report on the current situation. As I understand it, we have reached all the key mil...
Mr Monteith:
Con
From the language that you are using, convener, am I to assume that, in your view, we should not even consider the possibility of examining the McCrone settl...
Jackie Baillie:
Lab
Far be it from me to defend the convener, who is probably big enough—although certainly not ugly enough—to do so herself. However, it is entirely unjustified...
The Convener:
Lab
In fact, there will be only six meetings of the Education, Culture and Sport Committee before dissolution. There will be three meetings of the ad hoc committ...
Jackie Baillie:
Lab
I stand corrected—there is even less time than I said there was.
The Convener:
Lab
We have a tight timetable. If, for example, the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill is agreed to at stage 1, the Parliament will require the committee to conside...