Speeches by MacDonald.

“We settled from £5 million with that. This report, headed “Remote Scotland spiralling towards unviability”, has been put forward with the assistance of the chief executives of all the major bodies in Scotland, which is relevant. The new Highlands and Islands APPG and this Committee and everybody else will be fully info…”

“After close inspection of the detail on Pride in Place, we found that 50% of the evaluation was based on data that was not available even to MPs. We could not understand in any way how the distribution of that money was decided, and it completely avoided what many of us thought were relevant data.”

“MG ALBA and Gaelic broadcasting say there is a time of great jeopardy due to underfunding. We know there is a difference of about £100 million between Welsh language broadcasting and Scottish Gaelic broadcasting. We are doing a short inquiry on this, and we are wondering what the Westminster Government’s opinion is on …”

“That has been widely spoken about, but people cannot figure out how it is acceptable to drive Chinese cars but not acceptable to have Chinese wind turbines. I will take your word.”

“I congratulate the hon. Member for Isle of Wight West (Richard Quigley) on securing this debate on a fantastic subject. What I am about to say is specific to the highlands and Scotland, but it is relevant, to a lesser extent, to all hon. Members in the Chamber. I have written a brilliant report called “Remote Scotland:…”

“Kirsty, a few months ago, there was a proposal from Ming Yang, the Chinese wind turbine manufacturer, to invest £1.5 billion in Ardersier and employ 1,500 people. This was turned down by the Westminster Government. No light has been shed on that. Can you shed some? It is an economic blow to the highlands.”

“Thank you very much.”

“This Committee did a fixed-links inquiry, and the Department for Transport said that the UK Government’s role in fixed-link projects is limited as transport is devolved. Between 2000 and 2018—thank you for your letter on this—the highlands and islands benefited from the EU’s structural funds to the tune of €1.2 billion…”

“Will the Minister acknowledge that the highlands and islands produce a disproportionately large amount of our renewable energy? Will he also acknowledge that last week’s Ofgem go-ahead for three pumped storage schemes will produce almost no jobs, no legacy housing and no community benefits, along with minimal, if any, …”

“I do not have anything to add.”

“I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) for securing this debate. This weekend, I watched the coastguard rescue a kayaker very close to my house. I spoke to the coastguard, who brought me up to date on the situation. There are two things to say. First, it is clear that the MCA ma…”

“I am going to take advantage of our having a bit more time and of the Chair not being able to hit me. I want to present the case to you that we have over-tourism in many places in the west highlands in particular: Skye, Lochaber and so on. I am wondering about the authenticity of visitors, encouraging slow tourism and …”

“What would you like to come out of the upcoming BBC charter renewal to help Gaelic-language broadcasting?”

“Before I start my proper questions, it was not long ago that my family were all Gaelic speakers. What killed it was when they married somebody from away, and then their children did not continue it. I am passionately interested in this subject and I would say that that was probably the crux of the breakdown of the lang…”

“I wondered whether you were from Cape Breton originally.”

“Ms MacDonald, can you explain briefly what the national Gaelic language plan is trying to achieve? I am also interested in knowing how closely we are working with, say, Cape Breton, which has Gaelic colleges and a substantial number of speakers.”

“Between 1961 and 1971, there was a statistical move up in the number of people who spoke Gaelic. Is there something that we can learn from that? Do you have any idea why it might have happened, and can it be replicated?”

“Mr Dunbar, my family are from Cape Breton as well—Mabou—so we have that link. Do you think Bòrd na Gàidhlig is working with its partners to help BBC ALBA deliver the objectives on the national Gaelic plan? Do you liaise with BBC ALBA a lot on that?”

“The Minister knows that in the highlands we have had three massive pump storage sites move to the next level of development. Cumulatively, they will store 4 GW in an area that has the highest fuel poverty in Britain, at a cost of £5 billion. At the moment, the pumps will do very little for the highland economy, as ther…”

“Minister, yesterday we went to the square in front and that fantastic display of all the military things, which I couldn’t have enjoyed more. There were some people talking about drones who were very knowledgeable and they said that they have a very major issue that the CAA and the military equivalent are making condit…”