HOLYROOD Cabinet ministers are being sent on international fact-finding missions as part of the next stage of the "national conversation" on independence.
Alex Salmond, the First Minister, said institutions such as churches, local authorities and businesses all had a "vital role" to play in contributing to the debate on Scotland's future.
That drive began yesterday as Fiona Hyslop, the Education Sec
retary, travelled to Ireland with the STUC to meet their opposite numbers.
And speaking ahead of today's British-Irish Council Summit, Mr Salmond told an audience at Trinity College in Dublin that he had come to "set out our aspirations for Scotland's future – how we will create a Celtic Lion economy to match the Celtic Tiger on this side of the Irish Sea".
Opposition politicians last night attacked Mr Salmond for announcing the next steps in the national conversation abroad, amid claims he should have raised the issue at Holyrood.
The First Minister warned that "political independence of itself does not guarantee success: it is what you do with that independence which matters".
He stressed that there needed to be investment in skills and education.
A spokeswoman for the First Minister said last night: "Fiona Hyslop was here this afternoon and came with the STUC to have discussions with their counterparts in Ireland about skills and workforce.
"That sort of approach – travelling together to learn lessons – is one we would like drawn into the national conversation."
In a lecture entitled "Scotland's National Conversation: The Next Steps", Mr Salmond praised the Irish approach and said Scotland was "seeking to build the same strong and lasting coalition among our institutions".
The First Minister launched the national conversation – a discussion on Scotland's constitutional future – last year along with a paper containing proposals for a referendum on independence. This is considered the second phase of that process.
But David McLetchie, the Scottish Conservatives' chief whip, said it was "bizarre" that Mr Salmond had moved forward on the national conversation overseas, rather than going to the Scottish Parliament.
Alistair Carmichael, for the Liberal Democrats, added: "If he wants this initiative to have any credibility he should be prepared to put it before Scotland's parliament."
But a source close to the First Minister said the national conversation was "an outward-looking process and Scotland is an outlooking nation".
The full article contains 394 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
