SCOTLAND has a Cabinet Secretary for Gaelic for the first time.

Kate Forbes was given the position alongside the Economy and Deputy First Minister briefs on Wednesday.

It came amid a slight reshuffle of the SNP’s top team after John Swinney took over from Humza Yousaf as party leader and then First Minister.

The news has been welcomed by Gaelic language campaigners.

The campaign group Misneachd Alba said, translated to English: “This is progress, it will be @_KateForbes in charge of Gaelic affairs in her role as Deputy First Minister.

“We are happy to have someone in the Cabinet who represents Gaelic across the Government.”

The National:

Màrtainn Mac A'Bhàillidh, an organiser with Misneachd Alba, added that it was “much better” to have someone who could work cross-government on Gaelic than to have the language fall under the education brief, as it did previously.

Before Swinney’s reshuffle, Misneachd Alba had said they would be campaigning for a “Minister for Scotland's Languages”.

In the wake of Forbes’s appointment, Scottish languages campaign group Oor Vyce welcomed the news – but said Scots also deserved recognition.

The group said: “We're gey tricket tae finally see Gaelic be a named ministerial responsibility but fit aboot Scots?

“We've been campaigning noo for a filie for need for a meenister for baith leids, aa the mair important wi the bill gan through parliament.”

Scots campaigner Iona Fyfe echoed the sentiment, writing: "Lovely to see Kate Forbes having responsibility for Gaelic. Who has responsibility for Scots?

"With the new Scottish Languages Bill, it’s worthwhile placing Scots in there too."

The Scottish Languages Bill, on which consultation ended in March, would give Gaelic and Scots languages official status in Scotland.

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University of Strathclyde law lecturer Malcolm Combe wrote on social media: “I hope I'm not wrong, but I'm quietly confident the new Cabinet and indeed FM could be good for Gaelic.

“Swinney strikes me as someone who gets it – I attended his 2016 Angus Macleod Memorial Lecture in Stornoway – and giving Gaelic speaker Forbes a nominate role also bodes well.”

Earlier in 2024, Gaelic language programmes faced funding cuts.

Bòrd na Gàidhlig, the principal body in Scotland responsible for promoting Gaelic development, saw funding shortfalls that meant the contracts of two language planning officers and an education manager were not renewed in the next financial year – along with the organisation’s Gaelic Development Officer scheme.