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So it is being spent on other parts of the budget.

So that will not include all the people who would have been entitled to the full amount if it was not means-tested.

I just wanted you to clarify that.

Good morning. My first question is for you, Jamie Robertson, because you talked about empowering councils. I think that everybody touched on that, but you mentioned it at the beginning of the meeting.

I recently met organisations and individuals in the tourism and hospitality sector in Fort William. You will appreciate that a large part of my casework over the past few months and years has related to the visitor levy. One of the many concerns that those organisations and individuals raised was how the levy would impact not only them and their businesses but other businesses, such as restaurants and cabs. It has a wider impact than just those who visit an area.

In empowering communities, are we really only shifting the tax burden to those communities, people and businesses? Is that a pattern? What kind of impact is that likely to have on those economies? You could see a situation in which the levy benefits the national Government, because it can refocus money on its priorities, whatever those happen to be, and local authorities will be able to fill large gaps in income, but local communities and economies will suffer.

The visitor levy is one part of this, but the wider issue is the principle of moving the tax burden away from Scottish Government provision, funded through general taxation, and on to communities, because it is local people and businesses that will be affected. Does that concern you?

I am happy to move on to my next point, unless David Robertson or Malcolm Burr wants to come in.

David, do you have anything to add?

Another concern, which you raise, is about confidence in where that money will be invested. The Highland region is obviously a huge region that has one area where a large part of the population is focused, Inverness, and lots of peripheral communities. A large amount of the tax is likely to be raised in some of those peripheral communities and, from speaking to people in that region, I know that they do not have confidence that that money will go back into those areas or even into the tourism infrastructure. The concern is that the money will just go into local authority revenue. How can those concerns be addressed?

Malcolm Burr will not get off, because my next question is for him. It is quite brief. You talked about the budget being sustained by vacancies. Much of my casework is about people in my region, the Highlands and Islands, not being able to access the full care provision that they have been allocated.

I do not know whether you are able to evaluate the situation—not so much the vacancies for which the council can slow down recruitment or keep open, but things such as care costs that have a direct impact. Can you estimate how much worse the situation would be, or what your budget constraints would be, if you were delivering the services that you should be delivering?

Would you say that the service that you are able to deliver at the moment will be sustainable over the next five, 10 or 15 years?