Seòmar agus comataidhean

I will bring in Liam Kerr on that thread.

You said that the bill has a focused aim, but many have come to the committee and told us that it is largely symbolic. What is your response to that?

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 16th meeting in 2024 of the Education, Children and Young People Committee. We have apologies from Stephanie Callaghan.

Agenda item 1 is our final oral evidence session on the Scottish Languages Bill at stage 1. I welcome Kate Forbes, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic; and, from the Scottish Government, Claire Cullen, head of Gaelic and Scots; Douglas Ansdell, team leader, Gaelic and Scots; Nico McKenzie-Juetten, lawyer, school education division, legal directorate; and Ninian Christie, lawyer, economy and social protection division, legal directorate. We will begin with a short opening statement from the Deputy First Minister.

We will cut you a little bit of slack on that one because of your tenure in post, Deputy First Minister.

What impact would being an area of linguistic significance have on existing community planning processes? You have spoken about the depth of things, but how would local, regional and national public bodies operate differently as a result of being designated as an area of linguistic significance?

We are going to circle back a little bit, because Pam Duncan-Glancy was looking to get in earlier and I missed her out. I am sorry about that. Over to you, Pam.

We will move straight to questions from committee members.

I want to pick up on something. Donald Macleod and Joanna Peteranna talked about taking the language beyond the classroom, but said that that has not translated into Gaelic being used in the home and the workplace. You want the normalisation of Gaelic in everyday communities to arrest and stop the decline in its use, you want to encourage people to try out the language at sporting events, and you want it to become an accepted everyday language. Those are just some of the things that I have scribbled down. However, the bill does not help to make that any more possible, does it? You are already doing that.

Colleagues will dig in more around those areas of linguistic significance. Joanna Peteranna, do you have any comments on my question regarding the bill’s function?

We might need to get Joanna’s connection checked out—it has gone a little awry.

We move to questions from Bill Kidd.