Hansard

I congratulate the minister on her Gaelic introduction. I will save my effort for my summing up, to give me a chance to practise. It sounds like the minister has been practising much longer than I have, so well done.

The establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 was instrumental in boosting the campaign to preserve, protect and promote the Gaelic language. Devolution itself has the greatest potential to halt the decline of the language, not only because Parliament has the powers to boost our commitment to the language, but because it creates, as we have seen, a regular forum for MSPs to discuss and monitor the progress of Gaelic development and to practise occasionally their own Gaelic. We have the right to conduct parliamentary proceedings in Gaelic. We can lodge motions or parliamentary questions in Gaelic, or speak the language that is some members' first language, which all adds to the improved status and exposure of Gaelic.

The previous Labour-Liberal Administration was committed to creating a statutory provision to promote Gaelic and so it introduced the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill. Members will recall that it had cross-party support. In opposition now, we are pleased to support the present Government in continuing that work. The challenge for the Government is in how to use the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 ambitiously so that it can be as effective as possible.

We all know that Gaelic is in decline. It has skipped generations in some families and there is a battle to maintain the language and, indeed, to reverse the decline. It is not simply that we think that every Scot should speak Gaelic; rather, our objectives are that we do not lose Gaelic as part of the heritage of Scots, that communities who speak Gaelic as their first language can continue to pass it on with confidence, and that every Scot has the opportunity to be exposed to and to learn the language. The strategy must first be about preventing its decline, and I believe that that is the biggest challenge.

As we have discussed previously, the greatest concentration of Gaelic speakers is in the greater Glasgow area, which is not always people's first thought. We know from the 2001 census that there has been progress because the overall numbers who can read, write and speak Gaelic have increased. I hope that the 2011 census will show evidence of further progress. Two and a half thousand primary and secondary schoolchildren are taught in Gaelic-medium education and we have 700 children in Gaelic-medium nurseries.

It is important to discuss how to reverse the decline in the language and how to promote the idea that there should be more Gaelic speakers, and identifying how we can achieve such growth will be central. The Gaelic language plans that public bodies are expected to produce and consult on are an important starting point for the growth strategy.

The Glasgow Gaelic school in my constituency, which I spoke about in a members' business debate not so long ago, has already made a significant contribution to sustaining the language. The minister talked about the possible establishment of a Gaelic-medium education school in Edinburgh, so we can see that the trend in favour of such education is increasing.

Providing Gaelic-medium education is, however, a challenge for local authorities, particularly its expansion in secondary education. The establishment of the Glasgow Gaelic school is in no small measure due to the work as a minister of Peter Peacock, who will speak later in the debate, and to that of the education authority, which had the will to create the Glasgow school. It could have chosen not to put resources into it, but I am glad that it did.

Provision of resources for the school is a challenge for the authority, but I am happy to say that the school is teaching in Gaelic secondary education maths, history, geography, religious education, French, biology and physics. However, it has not been possible to get Gaelic-medium teachers for other subjects, so that remains a challenge.

I have always been adamant in my view about the school, because it is in Anderston in my constituency—although not many local children go to it. I am, however, promoting the school as an option for local children, because they would benefit from going there. We know that such learning makes children more likely to speak other languages. That is positive and I am proud of that development.

I will address the Government's plan. The principle of equal respect for Gaelic and English does not mean identical treatment. We have the right principle, which is to support Gaelic development to the greatest extent that is appropriate in each public body. That is why the Government's plan considers whether using Gaelic signage or Gaelic in other forms is appropriate to different aspects of Government departments and Government life.

We must explore other ways of communicating in Gaelic to fit with our objective. We must explore other means of communication in schools and colleges and expanding that on the internet, television and radio. Members might have read in the Sunday Herald that an online Gaelic dictionary has been developed. A colossal three volumes have been uploaded, which has taken more than 10 years. Can you imagine that? That is a real achievement for Bauer and Robertson, who also plan to make the dictionary a resource on Wikipedia. That is important because teaching Gaelic in schools will not be enough; we must find other ways to normalise the Gaelic language. The minister e-mailed me about the social networking site mygaelic.com, which shows that Gaelic can be normalised. The opportunity also exists for Gaelic speakers to participate in Facebook in Gaelic.

The Labour amendment supports the Government's position and adds our support for BBC Alba and for expanding the provision of Gaelic-medium education, which we have discussed. BBC Alba can significantly normalise Gaelic, because it broadcasts for at least part of each day. It means that Gaelic speakers can access good programmes. Non-Gaelic speakers are also beginning to tune into the channel, because it chooses to broadcast programmes that many people want to see. Good on it for broadcasting women's football and the traditional music awards. BBC Alba is an exciting venture that should be supported. As the minister said, the sooner the service is available on Freeview, the better. Some Gaelic speakers who do not have access to BBC Alba would be able to access it if it were on Freeview, so we support that campaign.

A key objective of the Government's plan is to create the conditions for use of Gaelic in public life and to examine ways of doing that. The policy is not to achieve bilingualism, but to apply the objective practically. I talked about Gaelic signage—the Government's plan talks about Government departments in which using Gaelic signage would be appropriate. The availability of Gaelic-speaking staff in Government departments when appropriate will be an important development. Having a prescribed list of organisations that prefer in the first instance to communicate in Gaelic is good. The plan also suggests having a Gaelic option on the Government's automated switchboard. We support all those practical measures in the Government's plan, which can be done and which would normalise the language.

Labour believes that it is important to promote and preserve Gaelic in Scottish life. I do not speak Gaelic but, as a significant number of Gaels live in Glasgow and in Glasgow Kelvin, I am proud to be associated with the campaign to keep Gaelic as a part of Scottish life, culture and heritage. If the Government is ambitious and uses the 2005 act to achieve that objective, we can halt the decline in the language and make it an everyday way for Gaelic speakers to communicate, not just in schools, but around the country in everything that is done.

I will support the Government's motion. I move amendment S3M-3324.1, to insert at end:

"; further welcomes the boost to the language provided by the establishment of BBC Alba, and calls for continued investment in and expansion of Gaelic-medium education."