Hansard

Thank you, Presiding Officer. First, I have to say that in terms of developing, consulting on and passing the bill, the Scottish Government has fallen far short of what may be considered best practice in any democratic institution. Despite that experience, we will support the bill.

I put on the record my thanks to Stewart Maxwell. It is not an easy job to convene the Education and Culture Committee but he did it fairly, in a measured and thorough way. I thank him for allowing me and other members time to speak to amendments where previous consultation on the whole issue simply did not exist.

The Gaelic entitlement that was promised in the Scottish National Party manifesto became an administrative process by which to consider parents’ requests for their children to learn Gaelic. Having raised those issues at stage 1, I am delighted and pleased that the minister has now responded with a presumption in favour of Gaelic. With about eight weeks to go before I retire, I think that I can take the credit for making sure that the SNP manifesto has been implemented in this Parliament.

I hope that the measures that we will pass today will lead to more people learning Gaelic and I hope that they will lead to more investment in the language. However, any outcome will not be based on us sitting here patting ourselves on the back and saying, “Haven’t we done a good job on Gaelic?” The bill will be a success only if we work in partnership with local authorities to ensure that what we pass today is implemented. We would be arrogant to think otherwise.

We are told that the cost of a full assessment will be £25,000. We have heard from councils that, if that is the case, they will have to stop providing music tuition, because the money has to come from somewhere. Later this week, we will look at the budget. The bill will create additional costs for local authorities, when there is talk all around of cuts of £500 million to the same local authorities. Therefore, we have to be realistic and honest. Whatever we do, we have to work in partnership and with respect for the organisations and institutions that we expect to implement our legislation.

The bill has given me an insight into the joint working between the Scottish Government and COSLA and individual local authorities. It is funny that we never hear about the historic concordat these days. Highland Council is proud of its excellent working relationship with the Scottish Government. I read all the local papers and I can confirm that it is very rare to hear Highland Council criticising the Government on the record. That was until, suddenly, with four days’ notice, the council was told that all primary 1 to 3 children would have a 25-hour week. We are told that people were queuing up to see Angela Constance, but none of them was a councillor and certainly none of them was known to Highland Council, which is a very good council with an excellent academic record. There was no consultation and no evidence base to state that the measure will benefit a child’s learning or attainment.

So rapid have the changes been to the bill that a new supplementary financial memorandum had to be issued. That financial memorandum

“does not form part of the Bill and has not been endorsed by the Parliament”,

and, of course, it has never been seen by the Finance Committee. The document states:

“Some of the new provisions will place new responsibilities and costs on local government.”

It continues:

“It is not therefore possible at this stage to say ... where all costs will fall.”

Can members understand why councillors and councils are worried?

The original estimated cost of the bill for this year was £187,000, but it is now £2.5 million. The original cost for 2020 was £0.5 million but, following stage 2, it is now £12 million, which is up 24 times on the original. There is very little indication of who will pay, where the money will come from and what the opportunity cost is.

Given that Highland Council has estimated that it will need 30 new teachers, I presume that the £4.8 million that is identified in the new financial memorandum will be used to find those teachers.