SCOTLAND must invest in making Gaelic a "living language" if it is to flourish in the same way as Welsh, a Plaid Cymru MS has said.
Following the formation of the first Plaid Cymru government in Wales, the Cabinet will all be fluent in Welsh for the first time in more than 600 years, with meetings set to be held in the language.
Meanwhile, Holyrood is now without a single fluent Gaelic speaker after the language gained official status last year.
Several MSPs opted to take their oaths in Gaelic when they were sworn in, but the parliament has lost any fluency in the language following the departures of former deputy first minister Kate Forbes, who resigned her seat, and Alasdair Allan, who lost his in Na h-Eileanan an Iar to Labour.
For the year ending September 2025, the Annual Population Survey estimated that 26.9% of people aged three years or older were able to speak Welsh, equating to around 828,500 people.
This compares to just over 57,000 people in Scotland who can speak Gaelic, which is around 1% of the population.
Plaid Cymru MS Kiera Marshall said while there was work still to be done in Wales to reach a target of one million speakers by 2050, the country had succeeded in growing the language by putting in place clear legislation to protect it.
Asked how Wales had managed to make sure the language lived on, she told The National's podcast: "I think one of the key ways is through legislating and making sure there are very clear things in place to protect the language.
"We have a target of 2050 to have one million Welsh speakers in Wales, and during the election campaign, Reform UK were talking about dropping this target.
"While the previous Labour government has made nowhere near enough progress on that target to make it a reality, it's only through government intervention that we've managed to begin reviving the Welsh language and making sure that everyone has access to that."
Marshall said for Scotland to expand Gaelic across the country and see it used beyond predominant places like the Western Isles, it needs to be further embedded in education and, subsequently, more focus must be placed on creating more cultural outlets for people to be able to use the language – like the Royal National Mòd and Féile na Gaeilge Glaschú.
Asked what advice she would give to Scotland on protecting Gaelic, she said: "I think it has to be done through the education system and schools if it's going to be a generational change.
"What I've found as well is if you don't have the opportunity to use it, you'll lose it. It can't just be something academic; it's got to be something you can live in and experience.
"So there's things like Eisteddfod yr Urdd in Wales, which is a youth festival where there's Welsh language bands and stalls and food, and it's all conducted through the medium of Welsh, so it becomes something that is social and cultural and not just something that is studied. It makes it living.
"I think it needs to be done through education, but it needs cultural celebrations and experiences so people have a reason to learn it and use it."
Marshall has been learning Welsh for five years and is trying to bring her child up as bilingual alongside her partner, who is fluent in the language.
She said there is still work to be done in Wales to expand Welsh medium and bilingual education, as there are huge differences in people's abilities depending on what school they went to.
Scotland has more than 60 primary schools and 30 secondary schools offering Gaelic medium education, while Wales has around 400 dedicated Welsh-medium schools alongside 66 dual-language schools.
Marshall, who went to an English medium school, said: "I just don't think the provision at that level is good enough, you don't get the language at all.
"So me and my boyfriend are the same age, grew up in the same country, went through the same school curriculum, and he's fully bilingual, and I'm still here at 28 picking up bits.
"So there's work to be done, but I think it is through proactive government intervention in the education system that we've managed to achieve this, and I think a move towards more bilingual and Welsh medium education is the only way we can give people the gift of the language."
