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Some MSPs have claimed that operating kerbside collections alongside the DRS would make Scotland unlike any other country in the world. Are those claims accurate? How would the minister like councils to respond to the DRS?

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made toward increasing the availability of longer-term housing options for displaced people from Ukraine using the £50 million Ukraine longer-term resettlement fund. (S6O-01919)

Having somewhere safe to live is an absolute necessity for every displaced person who is rebuilding their life here in Scotland, free from war, persecution and violence. However, over recent weeks, we have seen horrific racist attacks on people seeking asylum who are living in hotels, which have been whipped up by far-right agitators and hostile language in Westminster. Will the cabinet secretary update me on what the Scottish Government is doing to protect people seeking refuge from far-right attacks?

Will the member give way?

Will the member take an intervention?

Will the member take an intervention?

I would simply say to Mr Bibby that he needs to read the Bute house agreement, which is clear about the commitments on the A9 and the A96.

The latest estimate has every single mile of the A9 dualling project costing between £19 million and £23 million just for construction, so that does not include management of the project or even buying the land. It is an eye-watering amount of money. Therefore, the biggest challenge to dualling every single last inch of the A9 does not come from Green arguments; it is about the financial reality that the Government faces.

Some Governments—I point out to Mr Bibby that most notable among them is the Labour Welsh Government—are starting to make difficult choices. The Welsh Government is listening to its Future Generations Commissioner and the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales, and it is abandoning vast road-building programmes and investing in other transport priorities that benefit people and the climate.

When I think of the transport challenges in the Highlands and Islands and the very real need for investment, I think of ferries, harbour infrastructure and fixed links. I think of the need to keep lifeline roads open, such as the Rest and Be Thankful. I think of the desperate need to dual the Highland main line and the investment that is needed in rail freight to get timber lorries off the roads. I think of the safety issues that we have on roads such as the A85, which can never be dualled. I think of all that, and I wonder what a further £1,400 million would deliver for all those communities.

For the A9, we absolutely need improvements—the status quo will not do—but safety improvements must come first. The recent spate of tragic fatal accidents on the A9 has happened for a range of reasons, and although dualling might have helped to prevent some of those accidents, we have also seen fatalities on recently dualled sections of the road. Dualling the A9 was never primarily a road safety project but, if we want to maximise the number of lives saved and accidents avoided across Scotland's road network, including the A9, we need to invest carefully in the right measures. Sections of the A9 dualling will still need to be completed, but investment should not stop there.

That is why I am saddened to see Liam Kerr campaigning against speed cameras on the A96, because they are a cost-effective way of saving lives. However, I credit his colleague Finlay Carson for campaigning for the introduction of speed cameras on the A75.

I have met a number of constituents to discuss A9 improvements. For example, I have met the Birnam and Dunkeld junctions action group, whose calls for safety improvements are important. Progress must be made before the next surge in visitor numbers at the start of the new season. I warmly welcome the fact that our minister, Jenny Gilruth, has acted quickly and decisively on a package that will improve driver safety, focusing first on the Birnam to Dalguise section.

Will the member take an intervention?

I have lost count of the number of questions, statements and debates on the A9 that we have had in the chamber over many years. Mr Simpson gave us a rather amusing potted ministerial history at the beginning of the debate. I respect the fact that the Scottish Government remains committed to seeing the A9 dualling project through to the end, but the reality is that there are challenges and pressures on priorities and budgets, and they are growing and will not go away any time soon.

I do not have the time.

The action group has also talked about the need for the speed limit to be reduced to 50mph between Birnam and Dunkeld and for there to be better lighting at junctions, monitoring cameras and a roundabout at Dunkeld. I urge the minister, in her closing speech, to double down on those suggestions from my Perthshire constituents and to continue the investment in the A9 but to invest wisely based on where we are now and what the future looks like.