§ Mr. Foulkesasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the total amount of direct Government support for the Gaelic language; if he will express the figures on a per capita basis; and if he will consider additional funding to Scottish education authorities which have responsibility for bilingual populations.
§ Mr. Allan StewartThe amount of direct support given by my Department in support of the Gaelic language in the present financial year is £77,190. This represents 93p per capita of the Gaelic-speaking or writing population of Scotland, based on figures obtained in the 1981 census. Financial support for organisations whose principal medium is Gaelic is also made available by the Scottish Arts Council. My Department assisted, for research purposes, the initial setting up of Western Isles islands council's bilingual project for primary education and is making available funds for an independent research evaluation of that project. I have no further plans to assist bilingual education at present.