Meeting of the Parliament 24 April 2018
Yes. I will resist. [Laughter.]
Ray Michie was also a firm advocate of the Gaelic language. In fact, she took her oath in the House of Commons in Gaelic. When she retired and was elevated to the House of Lords, she did the same there, and hers was the first Lord’s oath to be given in Gaelic. At that time, she said:
“This brings home to people who have an interest in the tradition and culture of the Highlands how vulnerable the language is and how we want to promote it”,
which I think is a sentiment that we can all share.
I agree with the priorities that the cabinet secretary has set out and which the national plan has also set out, as regards use, learning and promotion. The variety of small schemes that he was able to set out today—in a range of areas from pre-nursery to nursery, and primary to secondary—are all part of the wider strategy that we are trying to develop. They have contributed to a radical change from 1985, when only 14 pupils were using Gaelic-medium education. The figure has shot up to 3,278, which is quite a miraculous change in such a short time. Every party in Parliament has contributed to that development, from the Conservatives—Liz Smith rightly highlighted the early years and support from Conservative ministers—to the then Liberal Democrat-Labour Government also making sure that legislation went through to give it status, to the Scottish National Party Government, which has taken it even further.
However, there is still an awful lot more to do. Liz Smith was absolutely right to highlight the Council of Europe and the fact that the language is still endangered. Overall numbers of speakers are still in decline and we still have a huge amount of work to do, which is why it is greatly encouraging that so many people from across the chamber who are speaking in the debate—some in Gaelic and others in English—are four-square behind the development of the language in culture and the arts through education and a range of other mechanisms, in order to ensure that it continues to flourish in years to come.