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You have talked about enterprise agencies and VisitScotland not putting money into staff but putting it out the front door, which I am sure is an approach that many of us would agree with. However, is that not handicapped by a policy of no compulsory redundancies in the public sector? It means that those organisations cannot downsize their staff to accommodate the different approach.

The tourism budget is down. The convener raised the question of hospitality, which is in crisis and is not getting support that is equivalent to the support south of the border.

I am sure that you are familiar with Sir Tom Hunter. I read a very interesting comment from him just a couple of weeks ago, when he was quoted in The Times as saying that Scotland’s economy has been mismanaged for more than a decade under the Scottish National Party. Is there anything in this budget that is going to persuade Sir Tom Hunter that you are on a different track?

Okay, but you have some way to go to persuade Sir Tom.

If I can interrupt, cabinet secretary, even on the basis of those figures that you gave me, there are still reductions in the budget that you have set for the coming year.

I absolutely agree, as I am sure the committee would. Clearly, if the enterprise agencies are spending that money on more staff, that should concern you and your colleagues in the Government.

Well, you quoted me figures that show that there has been a—

Well, the reality is that their overall funding is down.

Let us look at another funding line—tourism. In the last financial year, the figure for tourism was £83.7 million. In your budget for the coming year, the budget is £52.2 million, which is a 38 per cent cut. Again, we took evidence from VisitScotland about the impact of that cut on it and its ability to invest in, for example, overseas advertising, which has the direct benefit of bringing international visitors here. So it is not just the enterprise agencies—there has been a cut to tourism, too.

You have talked about public service jobs. Should the public sector still have a policy of no compulsory redundancies?

I do not think that we were proposing to close them down, convener, for the avoidance of doubt.

I go back to my original question on the budget choices. We have established that there are reductions in funding to the enterprise agencies—