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It is very good to see you today, consul. We appreciate the fact that you are telling us what feedback you got from Ukrainians who have come to Scotland. We tend to meet individual people, so to get general feedback from them is critical for us. As the convener said, we are going to have local authority representatives and the minister in front of us, so that feedback is very helpful.

I am aware that, in my area of Edinburgh, we have housed a lot of the people who have come from Ukraine, but we have a local Ukrainian community, too, that was here already and that has been supportive. From what you have said, it sounds like we need to put in place a bit more support with regard to access to English language teaching. Do we need that just in Edinburgh or would it help in other places, too? For example, I know that several hundred people have come to Glasgow. Do we need to spread that access in other areas?

Another thing occurred to me after Jenni Minto’s question about culture. Most of us do not know about Ukrainian heritage, so would it be possible for you to send us a briefing on the key dates in the year so that we could put them on our website or have them in our minutes?

One thing that strikes me is that the welcoming at the start of the process is very good, but the following-up with people and making sure that information is available afterwards is an issue, and your suggestions on that are helpful.

The other observation that I have is that we first had these discussions early on in Putin’s invasion, and people were thinking in the short term. We now have the experience of Ukrainians who have been in Scotland for several months, and we need to raise that longer-term support and connectivity with colleagues.

Ukrainians have mentioned to me that when they arrived they were so grateful that they had escaped and had another start, but they did not want to mention health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder or other long-term conditions on day 1. We need to make sure that we give them relevant information. I know that some of that information is available in Ukrainian from the health service, but perhaps we need to work out how to get it to people directly, so that they can access that advice and make use of it.

We can feed that in as well. Thank you.

In Edinburgh, we have a group called the Welcoming, whose members reach out to people who have come to Edinburgh—because it is a capital city, we tend to get a lot of folk. The group has put on lots of classes, so maybe there is experience there that could be shared. Could we do more to mobilise our local community support? I know that that has been successful when it has happened in Edinburgh. Could we as MSPs do more to encourage that work to happen with our councils?

I mean both the local community and the Ukrainian community.

Are there any practical ways that we could do that across the Council of Europe or by talking to different countries in the network?

Cabinet secretary, you mentioned the issue of where the money will come from. I note that solutions have been suggested, such as the tourism visitor levy; a percentage for the arts scheme, which your manifesto said could generate £150 million a year; and social prescribing. However, as with multiyear funding, those are not here now; potentially, they are years away. Does that not take us back to the perfect storm and the need to save organisations now? That came across incredibly strongly from Creative Scotland last week, and it has also come across from many organisations that have lobbied us individually.

I know that you will not be able to comment on the Filmhouse. However, to look at the issue, there were enough investor organisations to keep the Filmhouse going, yet it went straight into administration, with no public discourse and with nobody knowing about it. There is something about keeping our organisations open—keeping the “doors open”, as Sir John Leighton said to us in September. How do we support Creative Scotland now, rather than cutting it? There might be cross-Government support, such as business support and economic advice to organisations now.

Creative Scotland made clear to us that organisations will potentially go under without support now. Therefore, it is about two things: not only support now, in terms of funding through Creative Scotland, but advice and support to avoid that culture of doom that was talked about last week. How do we keep organisations going when there are potentially donors, funders and local organisations that, when faced with a crisis, would come together?

I know that you cannot talk about the Filmhouse but, with two weeks to go, there are people out there who have resources and would be up for saving that organisation. That issue is not just local but international, because of the Edinburgh international film festival. What do we do now?

I have a brief follow-up question, cabinet secretary. It was good to hear that you talked to local government representatives. Every time that I do that, they just remind me of the cuts that they have experienced over the past decade and of the fact that culture has taken the biggest cut. It would be very welcome if new items could be put on the agenda to support culture, and to support people in the cultural sector, and—reflecting on your last comments—artists in particular, to work in schools.

It is excellent to have you with us today. I have a follow-up question. In June last year, we had a very good visit to Brussels. We need to follow up, rebuild and reset our relationships. You have your top priorities, and I wonder about the other softer power issues, such as culture, education and tourism—you also talked about trade. Are there ways that we can re-establish connections or not lose those connections with the range of members that you have in the Council of the European Union?