Scottish Government ‘appears to lack strategy to save Gaelic’ says SNP MSP

THE Scottish Government appears to lack a strategy big enough to save Gaelic, a long-serving SNP MSP has said.

Alex Neil said he has received feedback from ordinary Gaelic speakers who are “extremely dissatisfied” with the role of Bòrd na Gàidhlig, the quango tasked with promoting the language.

He said: “Many of them thought it was almost a self-appointed little club looking after each other, rather than serving the wider interests of the Gaelic-speaking community.”

Mr Neil, a former SNP health secretary, suggested using surveys and focus groups to ask Gaelic speakers about their concerns and the wider issues facing the language.

He made the comments during a meeting of Holyrood’s Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee.

MSPS on the committee have been scrutinising Bòrd na Gàidhlig following a damning audit report in 2019, which highlighted a string of issues at the quango including “ineffective leadership”.

Bòrd na Gàidhlig and the Scottish Government say there have since been significant improvements. Mr Neil said: “While I recognise more effort is being made now in terms of scrutiny by Bòrd na Gàidhlig, by the Scottish Government, including improvements in the internal workings of Bòrd na Gàidhlig, what worries me is from the feedback I’ve had from the Gaelic community, there is a very strong feeling that Bòrd na Gàidhlig isn’t speaking for them.

“I don’t know why we don’t use modern methods of public opinion surveying and the like, focus groups and the like, to get to these people and understand what their concerns are about Bòrd na Gàidhlig and indeed the wider issues around promoting the Gaelic language.”

Paul Johnston, director-general of education, communities and justice at the Scottish Government, said this was an “entirely reasonable step that we could take”.

Elsewhere, Mr Neil said there are around 65,000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland. He said: “If the language is going to live, two things have to happen.

“First of all, there are wider issues that need to be addressed in terms of housing in Gaelic communities and all the rest of it to retain people and retain the language and retain local schools.

“But also, we need to get that number up from 65,000 to nearer the original target of 100,000. And I don’t see any plan, I don’t see anything in what the Scottish Government is saying or doing or what [Bòrd na Gàidhlig] is saying or doing to get us from that 65,000 to anywhere near 100,000.

“And I don’t see how that’s fitting into a wider strategy of regenerating the communities, Gaelic communities, in such a way that, apart from anything else, is economically sustainable and socially sustainable, but also ensures that the Gaelic language lives on.

“I don’t see any strategy big enough to do that.”