 The next item of business today is a member's business debate on motion number 10672, in the name of Animal Ewing, on remembering the contribution of those who built the dams and tunnels. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I would invite those members who wish to speak in the debate to please press the request-to-speak buttons now or as soon as possible. Miss Ewing, if you are ready, would you like to open the debate? You have seven minutes or thereby please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Today's debate is indeed timely for it is being held against the backdrop of new deck figures out today, showing not only that Scotland's renewable energy generation in the first half of 2014 was 30 per cent higher compared to the same period in 2013, but also that this overall increase is primarily due to a 50 per cent increase in hydro generation. It is surely a source of great pleasure and pride across the chamber that Scotland is indeed at the vanguard of the renewables revolution, and it is now estimated that over 46.4 per cent of gross electricity consumption in 2013 was met from renewables up from 39.9 per cent in 2012. It is also worth noting that Scotland contributed some 32 per cent of the UK's renewable energy generation in 2013, and that Scotland continues to be a net exporter of electricity. It is on track to meet our ambitious interim target of generating 50 per cent of electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2015. I welcome the opportunity today to acknowledge that our leading position is due in no small part to the extent of generation from hydroelectric schemes, big and small, across particularly the north of Scotland and in areas such as the lead-knock dam and the Glen turret dam in Strethairn, the area in which I live. In fact, Scotland has 85 per cent of the UK's hydroelectric energy resource, much of which is developed by the north of Scotland hydroelectric board in the 1950s. The hydroboard, as it was known, which brought power from the Glen, was a nationalised industry at the time, although it was privatised in 1989 and is now part of Scottish and southern energy plc. A great deal of the credit for the development in hydro power must go to Tom Johnson, the Secretary of State for Scotland in Churchill's wartime coalition government, for he had a vision of bringing power from the Glen for the benefit of all. At the time, it was estimated that just one farm in six and one croft in a hundred had electricity. Today, virtually every home in Scotland has mains electricity. I think that that credit is well deserved, but I would submit that the credit should also be shared. In preparation for this debate, I have been reading a booklet produced by Scottish and Southern Energy entitled Power from the Glen, which I am pleased to note has been dedicated to the memory of the hydro boys whose legacy is the largest source of renewable energy in the country. Although the SIC booklet refers, at one point, to men coming from all over Scotland and to Czechs and to Poles and to Germans, it makes no mention of the hundreds of Irish men who were such an important part of the building of the hydro schemes. It was concerned raised with me about the gaps in the recognition of their work that led me to lodge this motion in the first place. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity that this debate affords me to give some well-deserved publicity to their contribution and to bring to wider attention those hardy men and the sacrifice of those who gave their health or even their lives. I want to mention at this point a constituent, John O'Donnell and others, who, through a very interesting Facebook group called Memories of the Hydro Dams and Tunnels, have been putting in a power of work to share stories and songs that have until very recently been heard only within their own families and are well-deserving of a wider audience. By the time that major hydro development ended in the mid-1960s, Scotland could boast of 56 dams, connected by more than 600 kilometres, certainly. I thank the member for mentioning the Irish men, and I take this opportunity to say that my mother's two brothers, who were called O'Donnell, both worked on the dams in Perthshire and, indeed, the Highlands throughout the 50s, and I'd like to thank the member for mentioning the men, particularly from Donnie Gull. I thank the member for her contribution that is now on the record of her family, her own family's contribution to the building of the dams, and rightly so. We see 600 kilometres of rock tunnel aqueducts and pipelines, and at its peak there were more than 12,000 people working on dams and tunnels. The history of the building of the dams and the tunnels associated with them is an extremely interesting one, with fascinating stories such as that of the tunnel tigers, working on the sainte-Philin section of the Bedalben hydroelectric scheme, which set a world record by tunneling 557 feet in seven days back in 1955. It was hard, dangerous work. A number of men tragically lost their lives, and countless others would have been injured or carried the effects of the work for the rest of their lives. As I have already alluded to, the men came from all over to work in the tunnels and on dams—poles, checks, highlanders and huge numbers, as we have heard of Irishmen from Donnie Gull and other places—came to live in the camps and work on the hydro schemes. Many of them stayed, Presiding Officer, and their descendants are at the heart of communities across many parts of Scotland, including Strathairn in my part of the world. Little wonder that it is a real bone of contention for those whose fathers and grandfathers worked in the tunnels that, inexplicably, some of the public visitor information boards that exist at SSE sites compound the emission in the booklet that I referred to earlier, unless several nationalities who worked in the tunnels made no reference to Irishmen. A decent memorial to all those who worked on the schemes and accurate public information at all the dams is surely not a big ask, and I feel confident that SSE will be amenable to what amounts to a bit of tidying up of their corporate history. In that regard, there are very welcome signs that we are pushing at an open door. Indeed, not long after I first lodged this parliamentary motion, Gillian O'Reilly, head of heritage and community programmes at SSE, said on their website that we are enormously proud of our hydro heritage and have recently undertaken a project to understand and share the amazing stories of people and engineering feats that provided power often to many remote areas throughout Scotland. Our plans for a new visitor centre in Putlockry will provide a fitting memorial to those who worked on the projects, and we will continue to work with local historians, stakeholders and colleagues to determine the best way to do that. The official histories and visitor information have in the past tended to focus on the engineering achievements rather than the contribution made and human cost paid by the workers, and that needs to be addressed. Of course, we invite people to marvel at the hollow mountains and the great dams, and many do with, for example, the Putlockry dam and Salmon Ladder attracting some 500,000 visitors annually, and people from across the world go to see it. However, let us also invite them to remember the men who swung the pick and set the charge. In conclusion, I am extremely pleased to note that SSE appears to be so amenable to ensuring that that is done. It would be helpful if the Scottish Government, when responding today, would confirm today its support too. I would also suggest to anyone who has stories to tell to contact SSE Direct to ensure that this living history is not lost. This is a campaign that deserves everyone's support, as I am sure that we can all recognise the huge debt of gratitude that we owe to those whose efforts brought us the power from the glens that we take so much for granted today. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Thank you very much. I now call on Richard Simpson to be followed by Marta Fraser. Can I particularly welcome this debate and Annabelle Ewing obtaining it, and I will explain why in a minute for personal reasons. I want to begin by concurring with her that it was Tom Johnson's vision as Secretary of State during the Second World War really led to the creation of the Scottish Hydro Board, which he then chaired, developing, among other things, the Bitlockery first ladder and dam between 1947 and 1951, damming up the River Tummel to form Lough for Scally some five kilometres in length. Mr Simpson, can you pull your microphone up a little please? My apologies. Introduce the salmon ladder, which was, I think, an important innovation, and a recognition of the environmental aspects of those creations. Why I am particularly pleased is because I want to talk a little bit about the Crookhan power station, because I worked there. I looked around for employment at a level of remuneration worthwhile undertaking, and it was the best offer that I got. Three of us, three students were amongst those who joined many Irishmen, as you have said, in that particular construction, working deep underground in a situation where we were often faced with having to go back up to the face to drill when the dust was still in our faces. I have to say that the thing that impressed me most about it was the fact that the health regulations, which were pretty primitive at the time, were not observed. In fact, when I went down into that particular job, daily going down it for many hours, what it did for me was that it converted me from a family that was extremely conservative into becoming a socialist. I believed at that point that the protection of workers was absolutely fundamental and has been fundamental to my entire political career. Every weekend, when we emerged from the underground of that Crookhan power station, we had buzzing in our ears, which lasted the whole weekend. In fact, I have had tinnitus in my ears ever since that occasion. When I confronted the senior person in the works with the fact that I thought they were not looking after the health of the workers in the way that they should, I said that the inspectors would not be pleased. I was told, do not worry, they have to give us 48 hours' notice, we will get everything right by the time that occurs. I am not going to name the company, I think that the company is a very good one now, and because of health and safety, it has followed on extremely well. One of us jacked the job in, as they called it in those days, within two weeks because he could not tolerate it, partly because he was working in wet often up to well into the mid calf, and the noise also he could not tolerate. Another one, who was a theology student from St Andrews University, tried to hold prayer meetings. I tried to form a trade union and I got sacked. My memories of this, which Annabelle Ewing's very pertinent motion has brought back, I think, is something that I want to honour those men. The driller to whom I was an assistant and whom's place I took after four weeks left to go to the Clyde tunnel, and it may surprise people to know that he left because it was safer to work in the Clyde tunnel despite the fact that it was under pressure and there was a risk of bends than it was at Cruichan. 36 men died in the construction of that Cruichan. My parents were terrified about the fact that I might actually get killed. In the vertical shaft it was extremely dangerous to work, but in the Clyde tunnel it was also difficult. It was wet, it was difficult and the bends were always something at risk and there are people who suffered from that but only two men died. These tunnelers and the constructors, we owe a great debt to and I'm very proud of the fact that Annabelle Ewing has moved this motion and I hope that some of those memories are of interest to the SSE and may be incorporated in a revision of what they're talking about in the visitor centres, which are so important to our tourism. Thank you very much. I now call on Margaret Fraser to be followed by Stuart Stevens. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I congratulate Annabelle Ewing on securing the debate and on her motion? I think she referred to the pitlockery dam and the fish ladder in her remarks. That's a very important part of the Highland Pressure Economy. I think she quoted the figure of 500,000 visitors a year. I'm not sure that's quite right. I think it's 50,000 visitors a year who come currently to visit the pitlockery dam. The hope is by spending money on improving the attraction that the SSE will double that number to 100,000 a year. It's interesting if you go to pitlockery and you see what is now lockfascally, you would think it had always been there, but in fact it was only created between 1947 and 1951 when the river tumble was dammed, flooding an area that previously had been the old pitlockery Highland Gamesfield, which created the current lock. The lock, of course, is used by tourists and by locals for fishing and for boating. It's become a very accepted part of the local landscape. It might be that it's a typo in the SSE booklet that they might want to address, but they do refer to a figure of 500,000 per annum, so we wait to see perhaps that there might be clarification coming. We will no doubt get the resolution of that at some point after the debate. If you travel around either Perthshire or the Highlands, the impact of the hydroelectric schemes is obvious to all. I think that an important part of them is how they've now become an accepted part of the landscape and how, indeed, they are used to attract visitors and information boards that Annabelle Ewing referred to is a very important part of that. There is an interesting history to hydroelectricity in the Highlands. The very first scheme was built by the monks at Fort Augustus Abbey in 1890, an 18 kilowatt scheme to power the organ and to provide street lighting to the village then of 800 people and, reputedly, when the organ was being played, the lights in the village dimmed because there wasn't enough power to do both. Of course, we saw throughout the 1930s and then the 40s and 50s a huge expansion in terms of hydroelectric power across the area. I was very interested to listen to Richard Simpson recount his experiences at Cruikin. I visited the Cruikin tunnel some years ago myself and it's an extremely impressive piece of engineering. Mary Scanlon talked about her family connection to the tunnels and dams. I have one myself because my own father, in his younger days as a mechanical fitter, worked on the glass karnock dam in Russia. I'm not quite sure if he followed quite the same political path that Richard Simpson did as a result of his experience working at glass karnock, but there were men working with him from across Scotland and many other parts of the British Isles and many other parts of the world. It was very hard work, as Richard Simpson said. There were different conditions from today. There was nothing like the same level of health and safety as we would see on a modern site. We should celebrate the fact that conditions have been improved for workers on sites like this. What makes it perhaps all the more remarkable how much was achieved in her motion animal ewing makes reference to the tunnelers at Lednock? If you reflect just on the most recent large-scale hydroelectric scheme at Glendale near Fort Augustus in the Highlands, constructed by SSC, which was only operational for a matter of months before there was a large roof cavern and was then offline for more than a year, and they had to re-dig the tunnel as a result. It's remarkable that the tunnels that were built in the 50s and 60s, none of them seem to have gone through the same turmoil that our most recent construction saw just a few years ago at Glendale. I agree with the sentiments expressed in the debate. I think that the workers from wherever they came from who contributed to the development of the industry in Scotland and created not just that legacy of power, but also that legacy that is so important to tourism should be celebrated and I support Annabelle Ewing's ambitions for a proper memorial. Many thanks and I now call Stuart Stevenson after which to move the closing speech to the minister. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and congratulations to my colleague for bringing this motion forward and giving us time to debate the important matters that the motion raises. Like others, there are connections with this, and there are various. Among the many jobs that I have had, I have never worked on a hydro-scheme or in a tunnel, except when I was about 10 or 11 when we used to build tunnels with a former tunneler from a stalagluft prisoner war camp, but that is a very, very different thing not to be compared with this at all. However, what we did do as a family, we used to camp very regularly at a gualach farm, which is just below the Queen's view on Loch Tumel. One of the highlights of all our visits there was to visit the salmon ladder. My father, myself and my brother, we were enthusiastic brown trout fishermen, and to go and gaze in awe at the big brother, salmonis the salmon, was something that was well worth doing and to aspire to be able to catch that. Of course, that would be required is to pay out money for a licence or find some other way of being able to fish for salmon, which of course we would not have contemplated doing. The issue of building dams and tunnels is quite a substantial engineering one. We sometimes forget how much the Victorians really achieved in their engineering. We look at the Union Canal, perhaps a topical name for a canal, which traverses a whole of central Scotland with a rise and fall of no more than four inches. We think of the Victorians' achievements in doing that. In building tunnels, bridges and coffordams, they developed a very impressive set of technology. Some of the challenges are quite substantial. The adabatic lapse rate means that for every 1,000 feet you go down, the temperature rises by 1.98 degrees. The barometric pressure rises by 33 millibars for every 1,000 feet. You are exposed to the release of, in particular, methane when you are in underground workings, so there are a wide range of natural challenges to which you add the challenge that Richard Simpson made reference in the dust from the working perfectly contained and held in a close environment for those who are working there to inhale to their substantial detriment of their health. When the lead-knock tunnel tigers tunneled 557 feet in a week, that was a huge achievement. You were able to do that perhaps because the rock and the area that you were tunneling through was comparatively soft. If that was so, that increases the risks of roof fall and people being killed from that. It is unlikely that they were grilling through granite at that rate of knots. For middable challenges that we can admire from a distance, I do, like others, have a connection with the benefits of electricity. My wife, who lived in a council house, a mere six miles out on the main road down to Fort William from Inverness, was, I believe, at secondary school before they got electricity. That was, of course, from the work of the hydro. To this day, the very large oil lamp that used to illuminate the house, by which my wife did her early studying when she was at school, now adorns our living room. It is very impressive. I think that it is about two and a half feet tall piece of kit it is. There is nothing that the Irish and the other workers, including Tot to Simpson, as we now know, achieved what they did in building our dams and tunnels and contributed to our being one of the most green sources of electricity quite early in the idea that that was a good thing to do. However, more fundamentally, getting electricity into the hills and glens is a substantial achievement that I am delighted that we are able to celebrate today. I look forward to visiting the new facilities that will tell the tale again in a modern context and perhaps regest that omission in relation, in particular, to the Irish navies and others who made such a big contribution, Presiding Officer. Thanks. I now call Minister Fergus Ewing to wind up the debate on behalf of the Government. Mr Ewing, seven minutes or thereby, please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I congratulate Annabelle Ewing on bringing this important matter to the Scottish Parliament to debate. I thank all members who have spoken in this debate and contributed to it for their contributions. Both Annabelle Ewing and Dr Richard Simpson mentioned the pivotal role and the leadership and vision that was demonstrated by the great Tom Johnston, who, when he was Secretary of State for Scotland, ran Scotland as though it were a de facto independent country. Such was the untrammeled ability that he had to drive things forward, so there we are, an unexpected historical precedent. Of course, last year, when many of us including Murdo Fraser celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Hydroelectric Development Scotland Act 1943 and the role that Tom Johnston played, the enormous role that he played in the development of that story, we reflected also that, in order to deliver his vision, it required—I think that Annabelle Ewing stressed the toil, the labour—the labour of a degree of severity that is perhaps beyond our imaginings these days, I would suspect, to deliver those projects, those civil engineering projects, those dams, those hydroelectric schemes. Therefore, it is absolutely correct that we take the time to recognise the massive contribution of the workers that handed Scotland a legacy of large-scale renewable energy provision that continues and continues, as was remarked, successfully and effectively to generate electricity to this day. The legacy also was of enormous benefit to the north of Scotland, where I have the privilege of representing the constituency. In 1945, only one half of the homes in the Highlands had access to electricity. By 1960, that increased to 90 per cent due to large-scale hydrodevelopments, giving more than 200,000 households access to modern comforts. The scale of the construction work is indeed impressive. Between 1945 and 1965, in just 20 years, 78 dams were built, 2,000 miles of tunnel excavated and 20,000 miles of electricity network established. We divide time, do we not, Presiding Officer, into Before Christ and Anno Domini. I suspect that civil engineers, whether to look for a classification of time, would use the initials BR before the regulators existed. Tom Johnson was not unduly hampered by heritage or environment regulators. He got on with the job. What a magnificent legacy has been left to the country thereby. At its peak, more than 12,000 people were employed with workers from a great many countries. From Ireland, prisoners of war and displaced persons from Germany, Italy, Poland and Czechoslovakia joining squads of native Highlanders, many of whom, like Richard Simpson, had never been for, had been paid such high wages. The workers known as the hydro boys had to work in remote locations and in dangerous conditions. I should say that, from discussions today with SSC, they are absolutely determined to emphasise the recognition of all workers, including Irish workers, which was remarked on by Mary Scanlon and Annabelle Ewing. That will be dealt with in visitor books and sites. I am happy to clarify that, as I am, to pay tribute to SSC for the work that it has done in producing the booklet. Gillian O'Reilly of SSC is a role to play here in the power from the glens, and Emma Wood in her book 2005, The Hydro Boys, which certainly merits a reading. Because we recognise the huge dangers of work, I was very grateful that Dr Simpson contributed to the debate, reminding us of the importance of health and safety. I myself, of course, in various roles, have had involvement in relation to that matter, in relation to the oil and gas industry and the coal mining industry. I remember being struck by reading social history about the coal mining industry and the appalling cruelty towards workers, including young children, especially in the 19th century, where disaster after disaster happened before legislative reform, and it was always too little too late. I did occur to me, listening to Richard Simpson, that perhaps our understanding and appreciation of social history is, in a sense, the very best compulsor to drive forward our focus on health and safety legislation right now. Lord Cullen remarked to me when I met him this summer, vis-à-vis the 25th anniversary of Piper Alpha, that BP and Macondo perhaps forgot to be afraid. Therefore, the role that social history plays, as Annabelle Ewing has brought to this chamber, is an important one. Of course, hydroelectric power plays a very important part, and we are all keen to see it continue. We are at the moment concerned that a defect in the hydrofeed-in tariff subsidy that we have raised with the UK Government for, I think, over a year now is causing a very serious threat to the industry, Presiding Officer. We very much hope that, working together, that can be rectified before this year is out. Murdo Fraser was correct to draw attention to the tourism benefits, as has been mentioned by all speakers. The proposal to upgrade the visitor centre of SSE at the Pitlochry Dam and Salmon Ladder is very much welcomed. It is a marvellous example of how civil engineering can protect the environment. The fact that there are half a million visitors a year shows the interest that there is in this matter. In conclusion, hydroelectricity is one of the great industrial and economic success stories of Scotland, all too often, while, correctly recognising the leadership role that Tom Johnstone and others played, we neglect to remember the efforts of the workers who actually delivered the schemes. It is therefore a great pleasure that I can say to Annabelle Ewing—if I may say so, Presiding Officer, my sister—that I am very pleased that she has brought forward this opportunity for us today to remember and to celebrate and recognise the huge benefits that the hydro workers played leaving Scotland a wonderful legacy. Many thanks and thank you all. I now suspend this meeting of Parliament until 2.30 this afternoon.