11 February 2010

I am pleased to take part in the debate. For me, it is unfinished business.

When I was the minister with responsibility for Gaelic, I had some responsibility for the discussions and negotiations, and responsibility for some of the funding, in securing BBC Alba in the first place.

At that time, Patricia Ferguson was the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, and she played the biggest part by concluding the discussions on whether to establish a channel.

I am pleased that we secured the channel, as it is making a big contribution to strengthening the normalisation of Gaelic in our society.

The points that Alasdair Allan made about normalisation are extremely pertinent and important: normalisation is part of the function of the channel.

At peak, BBC Alba has had more than 600,000 viewers, although the average is about 220,000—5 per cent of the Scottish population.

Its reach into the Highlands and Islands is something like 11 per cent, which is very impressive indeed.

So viewing is not confined solely to Gaelic speakers, and the channel is not a Gaelic ghetto—a point that Ted Brocklebank ably made—but an active bridge between Gaelic and the many other cultures of our country.

The fact that the viewing numbers are far greater than the current number of Gaelic speakers shows that non-Gaelic speakers are viewing and encountering Gaelic influences.

I hope that their interest in the language and their support for this important part of our culture increase. Through BBC Alba, Gaelic is reaching out into English-speaking communities in an important way.

That is happening because the channel is not parochial or introspective but reflects the culture of our Gaels, who are outward-looking, internationalist and multicultural in their perspectives.

The promising start that BBC Alba has made needs to be strengthened, however.

People will testify that many Gaels living in their own communities cannot get the service for technical reasons.

If the channel were provided through Freeview, the BBC estimates that that would attract a further 150,000 to 180,000 viewers—a significant number.

Such a move would be important for the channel's development in the future.

That would not just empower Gaelic speakers to view programmes in their own language and through the roots of their own culture, but enable non-Gaels to access that rich and important dimension to our national life.

Without BBC Alba being available through Freeview and cable, there is a real danger of people continuing to be disenfranchised in that way.

The very communities that BBC Alba was primarily intended to reach would not be fully reached without that development, which we are all arguing for today.

I support the thrust of the Government's motion and our important amendment.

I also support the Tory amendment.

However, it is still unclear to me whether the Liberal Democrats are saying that Freeview should not be used to extend the reach of BBC Alba until the question of the radio channels is resolved.

Perhaps they could clarify that.

Peter Peacock: The Liberal Democrat position is still not 100 per cent clear to me

If they are saying—as I hope that they are—that they do not want to hold back BBC Alba until an answer is received on the radio channels but that they want to get that answer, I share that view.

I, too, want an answer on that issue.

I trust that the BBC will accede to the application that has been made and the strong support for that application.

However, as we have touched on, that will not happen without some difficulty.

The spectrum that would be allocated—to which Iain Smith and others have referred—could mean that some people would lose their radio service.

The reasons for that are technical, and there are normally technical answers to technical questions.

I hope that the BBC can find those answers; I encourage the minister to work closely with the BBC and encourage it to find those answers, so that nobody is disenfranchised in any respect because of this important development.

Gaelic remains in a very fragile state.

The development of BBC Alba is just one way in which we can strengthen and normalise a culture that, for so long, has been disadvantaged by a variety of mechanisms in our society.

I strongly support the thrust of the debate and hope that we will quickly see the developments that we all want to see and that more people will be able to access this very important channel.

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