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20 Most Recent Speeches
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 13th Mar 2008
I am fortunate enough to have part of the Cairngorms national park in my region. As well as being a world-class area of outstanding natural environment, the park is home to around 17,000 people in a wide range of diverse communities.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 13th Mar 2008
I understand that the Borders railway won the Parliament's backing because it will deliver major economic and social development opportunities and because it represents one of the most sustainable public transport proposals in Scotland. In fact, the minister said last week that its cost benefit ratio has increased even further.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Wed 12th Mar 2008
I thank Dave Thompson for lodging the motion for debate. We should be deeply concerned about the levels of drink-driving throughout the country. In 2005, 30 people were killed and there were 990 casualties from drink-driving related accidents in Scotland. Figures for the four week campaign to tackle drink-driving and drug-driving at Christmas, which was backed by ACPOS, show that 839 drivers were arrested during the period for numerous drink-driving or drug-driving offences throughout the eight police force areas. That figure is unacceptably high and represents only a small reduction from the previous year-by 69 from 908-and it demonstrates that there is no room for complacency.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 7th Feb 2008
Councils and their communities and partners are always anxious at this time of year as they await the outcome of funding decisions that will directly affect the provision of much-valued local services. That is not a sensible way of going about things. Local councils ought to be able to determine what they need to maintain and develop local services. That is why Liberal Democrats support the replacement of the discredited council tax with a system of fair local income tax.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 31st Jan 2008
I welcome the opportunity to debate these important and interlinked issues. Greater accessibility for all will best be delivered by co-operation among and joint initiatives involving the voluntary sector, commercial bus operators, local authorities and the Government. That was the approach of the previous Administration, and it resulted in more investment in new routes, cleaner engines and more accessible buses. It brought greater access, freer movement, less isolation and modal shift. Investment from local authorities and the Government in bus infrastructure, such as bus priority measures, real-time information and park and ride, has demonstrably led to improved provision. We have heard from Des McNulty about the investment of £450 million in new vehicles and the 8.8 per cent increase in the mileage covered by buses.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 17th Jan 2008
There are compelling reasons for ensuring that we have a coherent and comprehensive energy strategy for the UK, including the need to tackle climate change, the ever-increasing demand for energy, higher prices, and the decline in oil and gas resources. We need the right energy strategy for the UK and we need a Scottish Government that is willing to employ its own powers to best advantage.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 6th Dec 2007
Alison McInnes: Of course I, too, fully endorse the desire to speed up the summary justice system and ease the process for victims and witnesses, but I also endorse the idea that access to the justice system needs to be available to everybody in Scotland.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Wed 28th Nov 2007
I welcome today's debate and the varied contributions that have been made. The members who have spoken so far have articulated the scale of the problem that faces our society and have highlighted the range of inequalities that still need to be tackled. Recently, I have been glad to support Patrick Harvie's proposed member's bill on hate crime and Shirley-Anne Somerville's motion supporting the women's coalition's statement of intent, each of which, in its own way, sets out to tackle important areas of inequality.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Sat 17th Nov 2007
As we have heard, the Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee report recommends that Parliament agree to the general principles of the bill, but it also makes several important recommendations. The report attacks the SNP's simplistic approach and advises that the bill's environmental impacts must be dealt with. The Liberal Democrats support the sensible removal of tolls as part of an overall plan, with careful consideration of the cost, the impact on demand management, the environmental issues and congestion. However, that is not what the SNP is doing.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 8th Nov 2007
I commend the National Autistic Society Scotland for its initiative in founding the autism parliamentary network, which will not only be an invaluable resource for parliamentarians, but encourage greater understanding of autism. It will also provide a forum for discussion, which I hope will lead to change and development in the provision of services for those with autism and their families. Surely all of us must be determined to see improvements to health, education and social care services for children and adults with autistic spectrum disorder.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 25th Oct 2007
Police numbers concern people throughout my region. Grampian Police, which serves a large area in the region-with a city, towns, and a highly dispersed population-faces particular pressures, because historically it received a proportion of police funding that was lower than the Scottish average.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 27th Sep 2007
There has been justifiable disappointment and anger in the chamber this afternoon-and not only from Helen Eadie.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Wed 26th Sep 2007
The Liberal Democrats, in partnership with the Labour Party in Government, previously made record investment in transport and announced that it would take forward the AWPR...
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 20th Sep 2007
Does the minister agree that people in rural areas should have access to local courts and that the centralisation of court services in Aberdeen would be a short-sighted move, whereas the provision of a sheriff court building in Inverurie, along with the retention of the lay court, would be a welcome investment in that rural area? If so, will he intervene to halt the proposal to close Inverurie district court, which would involve all business being moved to Aberdeen? That move is opposed by local people, Aberdeenshire Council and local justices of the peace.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Wed 19th Sep 2007
The cabinet secretary said that nearly 2,000 patients with an ASC had waited over a year for their treatment on the ground that they were medically unfit. Will her new statistics, which will be published in March 2008, include those patients who, because they are medically unfit for treatment, have been removed from waiting lists and returned to their GPs untreated? Does she agree that those people will be more effectively hidden than they are under the current arrangements? Surely-in her own words-that is "difficult to understand" and "impossible to explain".
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 13th Sep 2007
I commend the previous Administration for developing the first national planning framework and welcome the new Administration's commitment to progressing the second framework.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change (Stewart Stevenson) on Thu 13th Sep 2007
Alison McInnes: To ask the Scottish Executive when it will report back to the Parliament on its work on continuing to progress the Edinburgh airport rail link project. (S3O-602)
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 14th Jun 2007
I find it interesting that the Green party has brought a debate on carbon offsetting to the Parliament. However, the Scottish Liberal Democrats believe that we must have a much wider debate than that. I remind the chamber that the previous Scottish coalition Government introduced the first-ever Scottish climate change target, which sought to exceed the Scottish share of the UK target by an additional 1 million tonnes by 2010. I believe that such a move should be applauded.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 7th Jun 2007
I thank the Labour Party for using its debating time to explore this issue further. As Brian Adam rightly pointed out, it is about more than Edinburgh, which is why a strategic transport project review would be the objective way forward. To single out two projects is just not fair.
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Speech by Alison McInnes delivered to The Scottish Parliament on Thu 31st May 2007
The Scottish Liberal Democrats will support the abolition of tolls on the Tay and the Forth, on which the people of Fife have made their views clear.
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Archive of earlier Speeches.
 Speech Feed(v1.0).
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