Alasdair Allan: The member mentions all that as if it were never made clear, either in the manifesto or in the election result, that the SNP is in favour of a referendum on independence.
Alasdair Allan: The October to February period is often a challenging time of year for CalMac Ferries. The company uses the period to dry dock and refit vessels as the tourist season comes to an end. However, with continued demand for staycations, it seems likely that Scotland’s islands will continue to be busy beyond the normal shoulder months. With that in mind, will the First Minister outline what...
Alasdair Allan: To say that our health and care services have been through an unprecedented shock in the past year and a half would be a triumph of understatement. We are all aware of the impact that the pandemic has had on those services in our communities. As the cabinet secretary said, the health and care workforce has been instrumental in delivering an amazing vaccination programme since December,...
Alasdair Allan: Yes. Is that better? Good. Families have often faced distressingly minimal contact with loved ones in hospital and care settings, staff have had to deal with the physical and emotional exhaustion of a year and a half from hell, and all of that is before we consider the huge stresses on staff of trying to treat individual people with Covid. I mention all that not as a platitude to everyone...
Alasdair Allan: Before I come to the island issue, I will merely say that, understandably, members regularly raise what is referred to as a postcode lottery in services. If we are going to address that, we will have to think about what it implies for how we provide the same high standard of care across the country. As I say, that will mean change. People in the islands who have a family member in hospital on...
Alasdair Allan: 4. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to introduce “bairns’ hooses”. (S6O-00136)
Alasdair Allan: As the cabinet secretary said, the bairns’ hoose concept has the potential to transform how children in Scotland interact with the criminal justice system. I would be grateful if he could outline how the plans will ensure that there is better access for children in island and more remote areas. I am thinking about my constituency, the southern part of which is separated from the northern...
Alasdair Allan: 2. To ask the Scottish Government when it will begin consulting on a cap on fishing activity in inshore waters. (S6O-00184)
Alasdair Allan: Given the importance of fishing to my constituency, can the cabinet secretary say anything about the likely timescales involved, or give an assurance that an islands community impact assessment will be carried out before any changes are introduced?
Alasdair Allan: Despite, as we have seen, the severe consequences of a Covid case on board a CalMac ferry, earlier this month CalMac stated that compliance on mask wearing had dropped to around 50 per cent on some routes. I continue to hear anecdotal evidence about that. I appreciate that it is not the job of CalMac crews to enforce the law, but what more can be done to make ferry passengers—particularly...
Alasdair Allan: In recent years, the Scottish Government has made substantial investment in affordable housing in the Western Isles. What can the Scottish Government do to encourage local delivery partners to ensure that rural areas in all local authorities are not left behind in relation to future building projects?
Alasdair Allan: I appreciate the member’s point about the importance of counting costs. Will he concede that the money that the Scottish Government expends on such offices is an almost imperceptibly tiny fraction of the amount that the UK Foreign Office spends on some of its more palatial residences and other offices around the world?
Alasdair Allan: I certainly concur with what the member says about the efforts of all those organisations. Does he feel that those efforts around the world are helped or hindered by a UK Government whose stated ambition is to cut the money that the UK spends on international development and potentially to redirect some of what is spent through other Government departments?
Alasdair Allan: As the cabinet secretary knows, vessel 802 is intended to serve Lochmaddy and Tarbert. However, there have been calls from the communities of North Uist and Harris for each area to have a dedicated vessel. What consideration is the Scottish Government giving to that question, which has been raised for some years?
Alasdair Allan: 7. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to promote Scottish literature in schools. (S6O-00257)
Alasdair Allan: Will the cabinet secretary say whether the Government feels that there are lessons to learn from other countries around Europe, where learning extensively about their country’s literature is almost without exception regarded as an essential outcome of secondary education for learners?
Alasdair Allan: I recently met Tighean Innse Gall, a trusted insulation provider in my constituency, which is encountering serious difficulties because of the new UK-wide industry standard, PAS 2035. Among other things, the new ventilation standard requires fixed mechanical ventilation and large permanent window vents. In Hebridean properties, the strict requirements result in a permanent and significant...
Alasdair Allan: In 1869, a poem was collected by the folklorist Alexander Carmichael in Ìochdar in South Uist and published in the second volume of “Carmina Gadelica”. The poem predicts this for one fertile coastal area of Uist: “Torranais of the barley, with the great sea around its middle. The walls of the churches shall be the fishing-rocks of the people, while the resting-place of the dead shall...
Alasdair Allan: Does the cabinet secretary share my concern that one of the biggest contributors to poverty in rural and island communities for years to come will be the economic and social harm caused by the loss of freedom of movement and trade following Brexit? What does she make of the many UK parties, including Labour, that appear to have enabled that Brexit?
Alasdair Allan: Will the member give way?