 Diolch i'n gweithio i'r oeddo agws i ddaeth ar oeddechrau 6071, yn y sefydliad yng Nghaer演, yng Nghymru yn cadwg Fferry contracts. A i fywr sefydliad y meir wedi swyddfa, i'n i gweithio i bach yn y ddegadau, rwyf i gael ddiogelwyd i gweithio i panel yw i'n gweithio i'r esi civilwyr ar bobl, i gweithio i gweithio â'r ddaeth ein sgol anghof. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Last night, BBC Scotland broadcasts its latest Disclosure Scotland programme, The Great Ferries Scandal. We learned some very worrying things about the way in which ferries 801 and 802 were bought. Semail broke its own tender rules, which said there had to be a refund guarantee from bidders. There wasn't. Fergusons received 424 Page Report to help their bid. Mae'r cyfnodd cyd-ddiwedd yn cael ei ddweithio'r cyd-ddiwedd yn cyd-ddiwedd ar y gynllun. Ffyrguson wedi cael ei ddweithio'r cyd-ddiwedd, yn cael ei ddweithio'r cyd-ddiwedd ar y ddiwedd, ac yn cael ei ddweithio'r cyd-ddiwedd yn cyfnodd. Nid yw rwy'n gweithio'r cyd-ddiwedd. A oeddych chi'n cael y mhagau, rydyn ni'n mynd i ddodd y cyd-ddiwedd yn cael eu ddildig. Gwysig, yn cael ffordd, Ffyrguson hwnnw felly erbyn ein llwybr y maes fflach y cas am y cyd-ddiwedd ar y cyd-ddiwedd. Ffyrguson sefydli'r cyd-ddiwedd rhywbeth yn iawn i ddweithio'r cyd-ddiwedd yn cyd-ddiwedd. Rwy'n ddych chi'n ddweithio'r cyd-ddiwedd. Felly ddim yn gwneud i methu Ilych Gwyl Wynne crofwyr siaradau o dd wedi cyd-ddiwedd wedi'u ddodd ac anghydd o dddiwedd ar y cyd-ddiwedd, ac yn ddefnyddio'n unig i gyfrag y cyfогeth fel yr adegiau, regions llyfr angen a flynygdo ar gyfer. Mae Szcarf coincidence yn roedd yn ein sgol, maen nhw'n gychwyn i'r llei ac mae'r hyn yn fleeingu na tyn angen figuredeon – ma sinistern tyn amryio'r cyffrandd. premiodd yn troiau i hyn gyma. Mi gfaitho'r cyffundertafo'r cyfrannu? Felly, mae byddai gynnwysgrifennu wrth gyntaf i gael i gael i'r cyflodau i syrpan i'r cyllid sy'n brigfrwyr. Rwy'r cyfrwyr o'r drafodau i dyfodol, ac mae'n ffordd ei ffordd yn mynd i gyfol i'i'r llefio. Mae'n ddelchio i'r hefyd ac mae'n gweithio i gael i gael i gael i'r cyllid. Rwy'n meddwl gwybod â hyn yr hyn? y covenantiaid a ganydd y ddoll i'r awdurdod yn fawr potr ac yn adnod ein taw o'i'r rhai cofnoteis i'r fferiaid. Rwyf, mae'n gweithio, yn yr SNP'r iawn mae'n wneud yno i'r sefydlu dyma. Ond, mewn y First Minister oherwydd ar gyfer y ffrindsym ymlaen ni ddywedd, mae'r gael yn ei ddechrau'n cwrthod. Yn y cwrs hon i'r brosiect ar senio i Undale. Ian Dale has been in power. The party has been in power since 2007. That is ample time for that可是 to have been sorted out. I mean there's clearly a scandal over how procurement was managed. Do you take responsibility for that? Nicola Sturgeon. I take responsibility for everything that happens in government, whether I like it or not. The buck stops with me. On everything I don't shy away from that. I take issue with your language there. But there's noännerwyd fel ydynt yw'r llwein? Michael Sturgeon, well scandal, I don't think it's a scandal. I think there's been a situation with these two ferries, that I don't think is acceptable, and we're learning lessons from that and focusing on putting that right. So she doesn't think it's a scandal, it's a situation. Maybe that disclosure Scotland programme should have been called the Great Feries' situation. Well, it's a scandalous situation, and that means we need a public inquiry and a police investigation to get to the bottom of it. Pres凌au hosso, if people in this government knew how to behave properly, heads would roll. Derbyn Macai has gone but so far nobody has taken the rap. They never do. But remember what the First Minister said. The book stopped with me. So let's see if that's true. Derek McKay says, awarding preferred bidder's status was nothing to do with him because he was on holiday. He says his then boss, Keith Brown, was responsible. We know that CMAL eventually wanted to reach tender because of concerns about the lack of a yw'r Ffyrgu Gwbeth yw'r Gweithelf Gwbeth nesaf, ond byddai'r suppu'r stath gweithio'r Ffyrgu Gwbeth yn rhan o'i cymdeithasol o'r gwir yw'r gyfrifolau i'w gweithio'r gweithio, oherwydd yn oedd yn ddim yn ein bod i'r gweithio'n gwir, oherwydd y Prif Weinidog, pob gwrs, yn awgwr 31 yng Nghymru. Mae'r archwp yn ddod o'r cyfrifolau i'r gweithio'n gwir, ac yn ymwneud yn ysgrifennu'r ddweud. Rwy'n rydyn ni'n gweithio'n ddweud yn y ffoto op. Yn y SMP mewn oedden nhw, o'r 10 oed 2015, ond nid oherwydd y pethau yn cael ei gwybod, ac John Swinney'r ddweud yn ymwneud yn ddweud. Rydyn ni'n gweithio'n ddweud, ddweud o'r ddweud mae'n ddweud. Rydyn ni'n gweithio'n ddweud, The fake windows ferry launched in another photo op by Nicholas Sturgeon in 2017 is still not complete. The 802 is even further behind and a letter from David Tideman today suggests that maybe even further delays. So many photos, so little to show for them. If you want to see more book passing then just listen to what ministers are saying about our Drossan harbour. That's where the Arran ferry goes to. But the new Arran ferry, when it's eventually finished, won't fit. So work will have to be done to the harbour if it's to dock there. It's private owners and now getting the blame for the fact there's no agreement yet on who will pay for that. It's quite extraordinary. It's always somebody else's vault. Derek Mackay has at least answered some questions but he's no longer here. John Swinney, Keith Brown and Nicholas Sturgeon who says the book stops with her are and it's they who should now walk the plank. We must also think ahead and decide how we can best run the ferries. I first asked for sight of the Project Neptune report in February but transport Scotland officials refused to release it until earlier this month which I welcomed. I don't know why they did it because it doesn't tell us anything we didn't know already. We know the clunky setup with Transport Scotland, SeaMal, CalMac and the Minister doesn't work. It should be streamlined. There's a mix of ferry services in Scotland, private council run, private hired by the government and just government and it's that last bit that has the most problems. So why rule anything out when we look at how we run things in the future? Are we really saying we want the west coast service to remain as one big monopoly that would rule out council involvement and smaller local firms? We can't let dogma get in the way of public service. Now I speak to islanders regularly and hear the same stories every time and it was the same this week when I chatted to islanders from Aaron and Mole. Mr Pointman's people are not able to get to work, kids not getting to school, people moving away because it's too stressful. They fear that another winter of chaos following a summer of chaos looms chaos upon chaos upon chaos shambles and scandal and now evidence that should merit a police investigation. We may go from the murky depths of the Clyde to a court of law. It's beyond shameful and it's islanders who are suffering. It must end soon and remember the buck stops with the First Minister. Thank you Mr Simpson. Could I ask you please to move the motion? I move the motion in my name. Thank you. I would remind all members who wish to speak in the debate that they should check that they have indeed pressed their request to speak buttons. I now call on Jenny Gilruth Minister to speak to and move amendment 6071.20 up to six minutes please minister. It was only a few short weeks ago that I made a statement to Parliament confirming the publication of project Neptune. I made clear my intent to engage with all parties in this chamber and noting the detailed findings of that report all MSPs should now have received an invitation to meet with the reports authors Ernst and Young. I also made clear the need for consultation with stakeholders next week. I will meet with CalMac and CML as we begin to develop the options and next steps for reform. Crucially, as Mr Simpson alluded to in his contribution, our island communities must be part of that reform of governance structures in relation to the delivery of ferry services on the Clyde and Hebrides network. I am pleased in that regard that Angus Campbell, who is currently the chair of the Ferris Community Board, has agreed to lead our community consultation work on project Neptune's next step. I will also meet with Mr Campbell next week. I was very clear in my statement to Parliament that things have got to improve for our island communities. I know that there is a need for pace on next steps. That must also be coupled with respect for the staff involved. I undertook to return to Parliament to debate the next steps for project Neptune fully. I hope that the consensual tone that was struck in responding to that parliamentary statement will be reflected in the contributions today. As a Conservative motion notes, project Neptune sets out the viable alternatives to the current structure. I will work with all parties to secure that agreement on a streamlined approach that will better deliver for islanders. On that point, to ensure that the next steps are the right ones, does the minister agree that there should be an inquiry into the ferry's fiasco to find out what went wrong so that it can never be repeated? I remind him that we have had an inquiry from the Rural Affairs Committee. I think that it was in the previous Parliament. We have had an inquiry from Audit Scotland. We have had project Neptune. We will have an inquiry from the Audit and Public Audit Committee. However, I understand what Mr Kerr has said in relation to what I would like to conclude my point before Mr Mountain pops up. I understand the point that Mr Kerr is alluding to. However, all I would say to him is that there have been a number of different inquiries. In relation to the point that he is alluding to, the Auditor General is looking in more detail. At this time, it would be appropriate for me to prejudge the outcome of his further deliberations. I thank the Minister for Giving Way. First of all, I would like to say that, as the convener of the Wreck Committee, when it carried out the report, it certainly was not aware of all the information that is currently being put in the public domain. To say that we had all that information and it was available to us and we could draw conclusions is frankly wrong. The second thing is, on the net zero committee, the net zero committee is not going to be looking as far as I understand it on the procurement of 801 and 802. It is going to be looking on the procurement of future ferries and the ferries plan, which you have not dated for a considerable amount of time, Minister. Minister, I will give you an extra minute for taking the two interventions. Thank you, which brings me neatly to my next point in relation to investment. Presiding Officer, as the motion calls for today and as Mr Mountain asked for, the Government has committed to a long-term plan for investment in vessels and port infrastructure, which will publish later this year as a key component of the island connectivity plan. That will build on the investments being delivered in the infrastructure investment plan, which committed to £580 million of investment to provide new vessels and port upgrades. I just want to reflect on some of the progress to date in that respect. We have secured the Loch Frizzah and have our operating on the open to mull route. We have been through the procurement process for two new isle vessels that will significantly increase capacity on the isle route and also accelerate the replacement of the fleet. I am also pleased to confirm that we expect the first steel to be cut on those vessels next week on time and in line with the programme for delivery of those ships. Work is on going on replacement vessels for the isle of mull, the MB Lord of the Isles, and up to seven vessels in the first phase of the small vessels replacement programme. However, I know that additional tonnage is needed in the CalMac fleet, and we discussed that in my statement to Parliament two weeks ago. Officials are urgently prioritising options for ministers at the present time, and I hope to be able to say more on that in due course, noting the commercial sensitivities that are at play. I have taken already two substantive interventions already. Presiding Officer, I want to talk to the issue of winter resilience, which I think is also highlighted by the Conservative motion, because I know that islanders may be anxious about the coming months. In January and February alone this year, 92.75 per cent of cancellations were due to either weather or Covid on the CHIFS network. Therefore, to help to reduce the number of delays and cancellations related to weather, we have committed to expand funding for tight and weather monitoring equipment currently in place at sea mal ports to third party ports. As part of the consultation on the ICP, measurable performance indicators are also being developed. They will be very distinct from contractual targets and they will better reflect the real life experience of passengers. They will also be visible and published targets, against which we can monitor performance, which I think is hugely important. This year, it is also worth saying that the Government is supporting CalMac to invest an additional £5 million to improve fleet sustainability and also to give a more resilient service for passengers and for communities. DryDoc this year will be extended. That will reduce the level and risk of unplanned disruptions that communities are faced with. CalMac has also made changes to some of the vessel deployment plans to prioritise reliability and improve the quality of the service in certain routes. For any prolonged period of disruption, I will convene resilience groups with the various community board, CalMac and local partners, as I have done since my appointment in January. I want to come to the point in relation to the ports for 801 and 802. I know that Ferguson has provided an update to the NSET committee and the Government will want to respond to that in further detail. However, I now want to respond to some of the points that Mr Simpson raised in relation to those ports, because I think that it is quite important. Our draw sign has not been upgraded because of the delays with the private owners of the port, but this overlooks, of course, the significant investment that has taken place to ensure that the vessel can operate from upgraded facilities at Trunport. Trun has received £3 million of Scottish Government support, and that will be secured as an alternative port for the Arran service in the longer term. Minister, you have got 30 seconds left. In addition, the investments on the ports at the Sky Triangle means that they will also be ready for 802 following the second closure period for the works at Yeogh. I spoke of the need for constructive working across the chamber in relation to ferries governance and next step just weeks ago. For island businesses, for children and young people and for all of those who depend on those lifeline services, we owe it to them to get this right. I look forward to hearing suggestions from members today to that end. I move the amendment in my name. Scotland's islanders have an unreliable ferry service because Scotland has an unreliable ferry fleet. In relation to the project Neptune report, Scottish Labour welcomes the Scottish Government's commitment not to unbundle the Clyde and Hebrides network and not to privatise it. We will therefore welcome further clarification from the minister. There will be no costly tender process because, if there is, privatisation is then evidently still possible. We do, of course, need a review of governance and structures, but we do, of course, need a review of governance and structures, but we cannot be distracted from the fact that it is the failure to replace an ageing fleet that is the root cause of this ferry's fiasco. In the short term, the Scottish Government needs to acquire ferries to help with this in the here and now and to minimise disruption this winter, with a recent statement referred to by the minister from the Government on the future of Scottish ferries that did not give islanders one single more Scottish ferry. Although I believe that Ukrainian refugees should be housed in homes rather than ferries, it proves that the Scottish Government can charter ferries at short notice. Ferries should have been chartered for Scotland in the long before now. Its islanders as well as every taxpayer in Scotland who has been paying the cost of one of the biggest public infrastructure disasters in the last 20 years. We need to understand fully what has gone wrong and set out a plan for the future. The disclosure documentary aired on BBC Scotland last night raises very serious questions of illegality in relation to the tender process for the Glen Sannocks and vessel 802. One of those questions relates to the copy of CalMac's statement of operational and technical requirements provided to FML by the technical consultancy firm that produced it that gave it a huge advantage with FML copying and pasting vast chunks of it into their bid. Given the unfair advantage, we need to know why CML and CalMac just allowed it to be marked highly in the tender scoring rather than immediately halting the tender process at that point or by making scoring adjustments. This and many other serious questions must be thoroughly investigated without delay and they must be investigated independently because this Government simply cannot be trusted to investigate itself and its agencies. We need openness and transparency. We cannot afford secrecy and cover-up. I support Audit Scotland's efforts to get to the truth. If they choose to investigate this further, then clearly they will need full access to all systems, documents and emails that can help them in that endeavour and the Government should make clear that will be the case. This has not happened to date with a drip-drip of new emails and documents over the last few months. To date, no one has been held accountable for this and the Government's talk of collective responsibility is meaningless. I believe that a public inquiry is inevitable but even now the Government still refuses to initiate such an inquiry. They should do so this week because the longer they delay, the more it will cost and the longer it will take to get to the truth and the more it will look like the Government has something further to hide. There is a lot of blame to go round. The one group of people through this whole fiasco have been blameless are the Ferguson's workforce. In the disclosure documentary, there was also damming evidence from GMB Scotland's Alex Logan and John McMonagle. When concerns were raised, they were told, that's the plan, that's the drawing, you just build, you're not here to think, you just build. It's clear the concerns of the workforce were ignored time and time again. Perhaps if the views had been listened to at the beginning, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in now. Never again can that happen and if we want to build a functioning ferry network and support Scottish built shipbuilding jobs, we need to listen to them now. I represent the lower Clyde and many of those workers I stand behind all those who want to breathe new life into the industry. That's why again I'll call for a national ferry building replacement programme to support the sector. Scottish Labour's ambition is to modernise the CalMac fleet. New ferries with a fair share being built in the lower Clyde will bring resilience to our ferry network and create new opportunities for the workforce. As GMB Scotland argued these ferries do not need to be complex news and designs such as the dual fuel ferries that Ferguson's is now building. Simpler contracts for simpler ferries do not need to go to overseas to places like Turkey that can easily be done at Ferguson's. Presiding Officer, we need to get to the bottom of what went wrong here, but in order to fix the problems in the long term we need to create a pipeline of work that will see the lower Clyde getting its fair share and islanders getting the ferries they deserve. I now call on Willie Rennie up to four minutes please Mr Rennie. I want to congratulate the minister for getting through her whole speech without once mentioning the enormous elephant in the room and that was last night's documentary. We were told everything was published. The government was an open book, nothing to hide. They had investigated every single inch, every dark corner, no corruption here, critics were exaggerating. Yet last night, seven years on, five years after they were supposed to be sailing, numerous investigations later, the BBC discovered new, quite devastating information. Ferguson's had been given a document that no other bidder had received. They had been allowed to submit a new bid, no one else was allowed to do that. They had a confidential meeting with Seamall, no other bidder was offered that. They were given a pass on the builders guarantee, no other bidder was given that right. And they won the contract on a lower cost, on a new lighter design, with their new bid, using the document that nobody else had seen and with the advantage of a confidential meeting that no one else was offered. We saw the highlighted page after highlighted page of the bid that copied the document that no one else had seen. Jim McCall from Ferguson's admitted he had an advantage. Remember that's the man the SNP asked to take over Ferguson's. Yet John Swinney was surprised about the BBC's new evidence. At his deflecting best, he took it very seriously. It would be investigated without delay, he's scowled, as if it were nothing to do with him. Even though SNP ministers boasted to their conference that they had awarded the contract to Ferguson's, even though Nicholas Sturgeon turned up at the yard to tell the workers they still had jobs, even though ministers even today tell us, without them the yard would not have won the contract. Join the dots, it's simple. The SNP are the reason for this scandal. They didn't just happen to be in charge at the time, they caused the chaos. In any normal government adopting international norms, ministers would resign without delay, but not this government. Is everyone else's fault according to this government? How could we doubt them? They were trying their best. Well, let's look at what their best means. Their best means the ferries that were supposed to be built five years ago are still stuck in the docks. The best the nationalists have to offer means wasting £150 million in the middle of a cost of living crisis. For islanders that means 7,431 cancelled sailings this year so far, hospital appointments missed, children missing school, shops and businesses missing supplies. Their best means the reputation of the good workers at a Scottish shipyard have been trashed, so trashed that the yard didn't even bid for the next ferry contract. That ferry contract has been awarded to a yard in Turkey. Best means Audit Scotland stating that there was a lack of transparent decision making, and their best means a new investigation by Audit Scotland into the BBC evidence last night. Their best means launching a ferry with painted windows on the site. If this is their best, please save us from their worst. We cannot carry on like this anymore. Whatever the outcome of the BBC investigation, everyone has seen enough. Taxpayers' funding has been wasted. The worders at the yard have been let down, and the islanders have been taken for granted for years. Mr Rennie, please take a seat. I asked you to bring your remarks to a conclusion which you appeared to ignore, which is showing, I believe, discourtesy to the chair. We will move on, because time is short. Members, I would suggest that some respect and courtesy is shown to other members and to the chair. We will now move on to the next speaker in the open debate. I call Edward Mountain, who will have up to six minutes in terms of the preferred allocation of the Scottish Conservatives in the speaking time allocated to them in this debate. Mr Mountain, please. Up to six minutes. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and I'm pleased to be able to stand and rise in this debate. I'm going to address it and try and put some flesh on the bones, because I spent a huge amount of time as the convener of the Wreck Committee looking at the procurement of 801.802, and I had the privilege, or if you call it a privilege, to have seen most of the BBC documents on which the programme was produced last night. I'm first of all going to start off by talking about the contract bid. Let's be clear about this. What happened was CalMac gave their requirements to CMAL, and these were quite considerable requirements, 400 odd pages actually, and they weren't all perfect. In fact, some of them were strange in the sense that CalMac asked for passenger ferries, cabins, and there were to be no passenger ferry cabins on these ferries, but there it was in there, and then this document was distilled down into a 350 page document, which formed the basis of Ferguson's bid. Interesting, if you look through it, and those of you that could flick through it quickly as the BBC were showing it, there seemed to be single words that had changed, and those single words were the word should to will. So CalMac said it should have this, and Ferguson said it will have this. Now that's not really very clever, but what isn't clever also is duplicating the errors that there were within the original contract. So they put in the fact that there would be passenger cabins on the ferry, although we know that was never part of it. What we also found out as part of that tender process, that the boat that was put forward by Ferguson's was overpriced and overweight. What I don't understand, and I will fail to understand till the day I die, was why no one picked this up. Why did no one not see that the biggest part of the document on what the ferry would consist of was a pure duplication? And the government are telling us they didn't know. I'm not sure I can go with that. Let's look at the builders refund guarantee. In December 2014 Ferguson said that they were being capable of producing a builders refund guarantee, and they gave two reasons for it. One is that they were a new business, and secondly that they hadn't had developed a relationship with the bank. So they said to Seymal, we can't do it in December. This is in the middle of the process. Yet they were able to continue with the process and were eventually awarded the contract with no refund guarantee. So what does that actually mean if there's no refund guarantee? That means that if everything goes wrong, one person's got to pick up the cost for that. And there's only one person who can pick up for the cost for that. It's not Seymal, it's the Scottish government. And are you telling me the Scottish government didn't know that they were going to be the lender of last resort when it all went wrong? Because I frankly don't believe you. I'd also point out that Seymal was particularly nervous about it, and I'm sure they mentioned it to the government because what they suggested that as Ferguson bought the parts, what they would do is become the property of Seymal. They wouldn't actually belong to Ferguson's at all. So as they paid for it during the contract, they were taking control of the parts. That's an odd thing to do, and don't tell me they didn't warn the Scottish government. I believe they must have done. Then we got to the stage of the re-tender. Well, it was quite simple. The boat that was put forward was the wrong size, too heavy, too much cost. So what does Seymal do? They say, well, you mentioned another boat, said it was no good. We think it's an excellent boat and we'd like you to tender on the principle of that. And that's what happened. And that's the boat that ended up being designed. And are you telling me the Scottish government didn't know that? I don't believe that. And when it comes to the stage payments, we started off with 15 stage payments, ended up with 18. The more stage payments you have means that probably the business who are getting that stage payments are in trouble. It means that they are financially unreliable. So what happened then? Well, in 2017, March 2017, the yard was about bankrupt. So Seymal said that we'll only release part of the stage payments to the yard when they can prove each of that is paid off to the contractors who were owed money. We'll give a bit more of the stage payment. So there was Seymal trying to deliver the money to the yard to make sure the contractors got paid so the yard didn't go into receivership. And at the same time, Derek Mackay was around the back with a van shoving £50 million into Ferguson's and then another £30 million into Ferguson's making a mockery of it. Now the government can claim they didn't understand that the yard was close to being bankrupt. I would ask why their ministers didn't know, but they can't claim they didn't know that their government was dishing out loans which were unsecured to Ferguson. Now let's look briefly at Tim Hare because I'm running out of time. He cost us £2 million interviewed on the telephone and he came to the business with a lot of knowledge. He'd been an engineer on a cruise liner for a couple of years, never built ship in his life. And they always say of a turnaround director for the first six months of the contract, they are part of the problem. After that they become the problem. Well that's what's happened and that is why we are seeing the delays to the ferries that we're seeing at the moment. So in summary presiding officer, what we understand is that there were crucial financial requirements that were waived to allow only one bidder. The tender specification documents were given to only one bidder. The chance to re-tender and reduce the price was given to only one bidder and the tender happened to be awarded to a loyal monogas supporter. Stage payments were adapted to allow money to go into the yard and unsecured loans were agreed. Mr Mountain, you're 15 seconds over your time. Will you please bring your marks to your clothes please? You're over your time 15 seconds. Please bring your marks to conclusion. Thank you. Thank you very much, presiding officer. I will bring it to my conclusion. I don't believe the government didn't know what's going on. They knew fine well what was going on and that this parliament has been misled not only in the committees but also in the chamber. We need a public inquiry. I now call Jenny Minto to be followed by Katie Clark and we move back to backbend speeches of up to four minutes please, Ms Minto. Thank you, presiding officer. I welcome the publication of Project Neptune report and that it sets out viable alternatives to the current structure. As I've said before in debates, in Argyll and Bute there are strong views about the split rules of CMAL and CalMac. I need to be clear that this is about the structures and not about the employees of either organisation. We need to recognise the important work that the CalMac staff both onshore and aboard vessels do to make people's journeys as safe and trouble free as possible. I would also suggest that amongst this group there's an untapped sea of valuable knowledge that could be used to improve the current situation as there is in communities. The Minister for Transport has given a commitment to reform how we deliver ferry services. With the guiding principle our island communities have to be part of this. We also should recognise the Scottish Government's investment in ferries has brought new routes, new vessels, upgraded harbour infrastructure as well as the roll-out of significantly reduced fares through RET. Specifically in Argyll and Bute, I'm sorry, I've got a few things I want to say. Specifically in Argyll and Bute, the Loch Frisa, the two new boats for Isla, boats for the Danoon Gwric, Kilcregan Triangle and Mall as well as investments in pier infrastructure. I'd like to share my thoughts on current community consultation specifically around the winter timetables. It goes without saying that every year there will be a winter timetable to allow vessels to go for their annual overhauls. These have been lengthened this year, which I hope will reduce the technical issues that have been referenced earlier. However, what I struggle to understand is why there appears to be a level of secrecy as to what those timetables will look like. Communities are consulted as for their thoughts and then silence. I led a meeting on Mal in June, where I believed that there had been an agreement that the winter timetables would be shared and discussed with the very committee there, but that didn't happen. Instead, last week the minister was required to call a meeting to resolve the situation. One of my constituents wrote to me, I too wish that we had had been a meaningful part of the consultation process from the beginning and that the process had been transparent about the issues that we were facing. I receive, like I'm sure others do, similar correspondence from all the ferry groups in my constituency. As I've said before, we need to recognise the importance of involving islanders in the decision making process. It is those of us who live on islands who can provide useful intelligence into what our communities need. With lifeline services, some sailings are more important than others, and that should be taken into account when planning around disruptions. To maintain, I'm sorry, I would like to continue, to maintain lifeline deliveries. As to Mr Dutbury's point, I'm not sure that commercial vehicles would fit on a cruise liner, so that is why we need this local knowledge. I welcome the minister's statement where she's instructed Angus Campbell of the community board to visit and take forward the next steps and engage with communities. These engagements must be open and honest, trust needs to be built and all stakeholders need to engage. Folk need to understand the needs of other islanders and peninsula communities, and we have a responsibility to support this happening, and the meeting with Ernst and Young is a start. To close, Presiding Officer, may I make two suggestions? When the minister comes to reviewing the structure of our ferry services, we also need to look at, including the ferry routes that are operated by our local authorities and others, rain committee heard some evidence to this today. Whatever happens with the structure of our ferry services, the head office is established, truly within the community it serves. We all recognise that this is not just about transport performance, it is about delivering the confidence that is needed to sustain our island populations. Deputy Presiding Officer, I welcome the timeline debate and the long-overdue publication of Project Neptune. The further serious revelations in disclosure of Scotland that the Scottish Government did not stick to its own rules need responded to. A huge amount of public money has been squandered, but, of course, it is the taxpayer, islanders and those who rely on ferry services who are paying the price of the Scottish Government's poor decision making and delays. Over a decade ago, CalMac advised the Scottish Government that it would need to build a ferry every year just to stand still. That did not happen and, as a result of that, we have an ageing fleet that is increasingly unreliable. Sadly, that situation is only going to get worse. We need an emergency procurement plan from the Scottish Government. Despite repeated debates in this Parliament, a plan with an adequate ferry replacement programme has still not been presented. I welcome that the Scottish Government has rolled out unbundling and privatisation. However, it has not committed to an in-house permanent operation. It seems that re-tendering still seems to be a possible route. I would be very grateful if the Cabinet Secretary could confirm that, because decisions need to be made about tendering and procurement of new ferries. That was absent from Project Neptune, and a clear direction of travel is needed from the Scottish Government urgently. We know that our fleet is ageing. More than half of the 31 CalMac vessels are over 25 years, which is the age that you would expect a ferry to last. We know, as representatives in this Parliament, that it is those that rely on those services and the communities that they live in that are paying the price every week. I will take an intervention. I thank Katie Collart for taking the intervention. Is it Labour's position that the ferries should be entirely Government run as they are now? We do not believe that the problem is ownership, and we do not believe that having a competitive process on what our lifeline services is going to be the solution to the challenges that we face. We believe that we are in the situation that we are in at the moment, not because of the ownership model, but a failure to recognise, over a lengthy period of time—indeed, since the creation of this Parliament—that it was necessary to repeatedly procure new vessels. I believe that that is a lesson that this Parliament needs to learn, and we need to accept our responsibility to ensure that those vessels are procured. There have been over 130 vessels that have been looked at across the world by CalMac with a view to bringing them in second hand. It is quite clear that that is not the way that we are going to get the solution. We need a procurement policy that builds in Scotland that develops our industrial capacity and delivers for communities that rely on ferry services. It is very clear that important ferries are to the communities that they serve and what it means to the economy and general wellbeing of such communities. We have to acknowledge that £2 billion has been invested in service contracts, new vessels and infrastructure since 2007, and in the current five-year period of further £580 million has been committed. Scottish Government commitment to publish Ireland's connectivity plan by the end of 2022 is welcome. As we know, the Ireland's connectivity plan will replace the current ferries plan looking at aviation, ferries and fixed links. We have just heard a speech from Jenny Mint. We have underlined the involvement of local knowledge and discussions, and that is incredibly important. That will enable the Scottish Government to consider available options in consultation with islanders. I want to focus on a few key issues in the short time that I have. The priority, first of all, is to ensure delivery of the vessels being built on time so that we can ensure reliability when it comes to lifeline services for our islands. It was good to hear the minister talking about discussion and about extra tonnage as we move towards winter time. Secondly, and it has been touched on by a few colleagues, the Scottish Government remains fully committed to supporting the Ferguson Yard to secure a sustainable future, including a pipeline of future work. Sorry, I have only got four minutes, I have not got time. The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the Yard to ensure that it becomes globally competitive. Thirdly, the Scottish Government remains open to feedback regarding areas for improvement going forward, and that has been committed to the Minister for Transport. I am sorry, I have only got four minutes. The Minister for Transport made a statement on the future of Scottish ferries and published a project net tune review report 1-8 of September. As it was made clear in the statement, that is a complex piece of work and will require further engagement with all stakeholders. We talked about the importance of the staff of CalMac and Seamall in that regard, to ensure the most efficient and best value arrangements for future structures relating to ferry governance. Project net tune will consider recommendations for improvement and the current arrangements for delivering ferry services in the west of Scotland. There is much in the current arrangements that deliver as well, but there are clearly actions for the Scottish Government. The report also sets out longer-term options and no decision has been made in these other than the ones that have already been ruled out around the privatisation or unbunning of the CalMac network. Finally, I want to touch on issues raised in the disclosure programme. Those were serious accusations and they are being taken seriously. The Deputy First Minister has concerns over these, as he stated this morning and in the programme last night, and through the permanent secretary has asked the Auditor General to investigate. That is the best way to investigate the issues, and this is concerned, I am sorry, and bring back to Parliament. Tory calls for the Scottish Government to bring in the police are wholly inappropriate. That is a role for police alone, not for government to instruct. Presiding Officer, in conclusion, it has been a tough few years for some of Rylan community's adverse weather, Covid and, of course, there has been technical and delayed orders. Lessons need to be learned, Rylan communities need to be reassured, they need to be fully consulted and we need a thriving shipbuilding industry in Scotland. Excuse me, Members, could we have some quiet in the chamber and some decorum, please? Thank you. I now call on Ariane Burgess to be followed and make a point of order. They are very welcome to do so, feeling which I would like to move on to the next speaker, and I would like the next speaker to be extended the courtesy of members listening. I call Ariane Burgess to be followed by Emma Roddy up to four minutes, please, Ms Burgess. Thank you. I welcome the on-going Scottish Government engagement with affected communities and stakeholders on the options contained in the project Neptune report. I am keen to ensure that the Scottish Government continues fully engaging with all our island communities on these lifeline services. The Scottish Greens have long called for a commitment on long-term investment, as well as a full fair's review as part of the island's connectivity plan. I look forward to the publication of the Scottish fairies plan in December. It is vital that we listen to the voices of those often excluded from such conversations, especially young people and women, to create a fairie service that is representative of the people it serves and provides more opportunities for young people from islands and remote rural areas to thrive. I very much hope that ministers recognise the concerns of island communities and the need to continue to work closely with them during periods of disruption. Accurate and timely communication is key to avoiding unnecessary impacts on island economies for whom fairies are the lifeblood. As a Highlands and Islands MSP, I hear and feel the profound impact that on-going fairie disruption has had on my constituents. It is vital to centre them in this debate and in all our plans to improve fairie services. Our islands are not museums. They are living, breathing communities with fairies as their vital arteries. Every cancelled fairie trip for islanders is an appointment missed, a job unfinished or a shop unstocked. These lifeline services are essential to community life, so it is only reasonable that they should be governed by those same communities. Local people, as we have heard from colleagues across the chamber, understand the nuances and connections that fairies have with their communities. They are the best place to support the replacement of upgrading Scotland's fairies. Earlier this year, I welcomed the plans to expand the current fleet to build in redundancy over the winter and add capacity in the summer. I continue to urge that those new vessels be low carbon, like the electric fairies running on renewable energy in places like Sweden and Denmark. We also need to decarbonise our existing vessels, retrofitting an electric motor, cuts pollution, emissions, noise and running costs. To upgrade and decarbonise the fleet, we need a strategic long-term plan, but that remains challenging when CalMac must bid for the contract every six years at great expense. It would help to end the competitive bidding process and to make inter-island fairies part of a publicly-owned Scottish national infrastructure. Finally, I ask the Scottish Government to consider the importance of fixed links as another important part of Ireland's transport infrastructure, particularly where it could provide cost-effective long-term solutions to meet the needs of island communities, such as Yell and Unston Shetland, where there is strong support for this. It would make sense, given that Yell is now part of the carbon-neutral islands pilot. It is crucial that we unlock the potential of our island communities and help them to reverse depopulation trends by delivering a resilient ferry network that will secure Scotland's future as a thriving island nation. As many in the chamber will know, I, like many of my constituents, rely on public transport to get around and represent the highlands and islands that travel frequently, including ferries. It is important to me personally that ferry services get the right amount of attention and funding from the Scottish Government. I understand from that perspective that the Tories are holding the Government to account when there are shortcomings and asking questions about instances where ferries have not run or communication has not been where it needs to be. However, at the heart of any debate on ferries, whether that is procurement, shipbuilding or managing the services must be the needs of islanders. Exaggerations and, in the case of recent claims about freight not being moved, outright lies in the national news do not help islanders. It does not help anyone. If my constituents—I will take one intervention, so it better be a good one— I cannot promise that, but as an islander, I probably have a little bit of perspective. One of the issues that we are facing is now an Audit Scotland inquiry into this issue. Can the member confirm that Audit Scotland does not have a role in criminal investigation, cannot compel witnesses and cannot interview individuals under caution, whereas a public inquiry or a police investigation could? Does she not recognise that what we need to get the information to get the answers that we have been held back so far is that investigation? I think that you have enough information to respond to Mr Halcro Johnston's point. That was more of a speech. I also recognise that I have no place in criminal investigations and neither does the Scottish Government, so I echo comments earlier that it is also not appropriate for me to claim that there is any need for that. Going back to the point that I was making about exaggerations, it does not help anyone if my constituents read those things in the news and think that there is no point going to the shop because there will not be food when there is or that they have to cancel an appointment when they do not. It is unacceptable that, thanks to Conservative MSPs, that is exactly what is happening. My advice to them is to approach this genuinely. There are genuine points that we made on behalf of the islanders that they claim to speak for, rather than focusing on whose head rolls and which synonym is being used to describe the situation today. I, like any Highlands and Islands representative, deal regularly with case work on ferries, but in the past three months more people have complained to me about misinformation, most coming from those benches than have complained about last-minute changes to services. Nobody, and I include the Scottish Government in this, has said that there isn't work to be done on ferry services. I wouldn't stand here and claim that. It's not good enough, there are big issues and a lot of effort will be needed from a lot of people to improve that. However, I am reassured by the tone of the minister's contribution this afternoon, and the quotes from the First Minister read out earlier to me aren't the quotes of a person pretending that nothing has gone wrong either. On the topic of scrutiny, this is far from the first debate that we have had in this place since I was elected last year on ferries, and there is great committee interest in what happens next, too. The documentary that many have mentioned today included focus on an inquiry held by Transport Committee last time. It is insincere to claim that scrutiny is being avoided or not occurring. The aims of Project Neptune, improving services and supporting island economies are bang on. The involvement of local communities whose voices are the most important here is the right way to go about it. I think that my colleague Jenny Minto made some very good points on this, and I, like her, will be watching carefully as more detail emerges. The vast majority of ferries do run on time, and listening to the Tories will not give an accurate picture of what the, again, real issues are or allow us to move forward in the right way. The only way to do this is to scrutinise the report and the actions that the Scottish Government is taking on their own merit. We will now move to closing speeches, and I call on Rosa Grant to wind up on behalf of Scottish Labour up to four minutes. Thank you, Presiding Officer. In the midst of this mess are people. As Katie Clark pointed out, people are trying to live their lives, work and run their businesses, and it is all the most impossible for them to do that with the ferry services that are not working. The Lochboistil ferry business impact group looked at the economic impact of losing the Lochboistil Malig ferry services for a short period of time. It surveyed businesses regarding two losses and concluded that, just during 14 days, there was an estimated loss of £658,000 to the local economy, with no compensation. That is just 14 days on a route that tends to be first sacrificed when there is disruption. We just have to look at that level of disruption and look at it throughout the whole of the west coast routes to understand that the economic damage that is being done to fragile island communities. Yesterday, we debated depopulation. You need to look no further to the reasons why. We want those routes to remain in public ownership, as my colleague Neil Bibby said. We believe that people should come before profit in lifeline services, but that does not mean that we believe that this Government is doing a good job far from it. The Scottish Government needs to confirm that there will be no more expensive, tendering processes on these island routes. Years of failure by the Scottish Government are now coming home to roost, and they need to find a workable solution now. There is a drip-drip of scandals of what went wrong with the Arran, Harris and Uist ferry procurement process, which beggars belief, and yet we are no closer to understanding what happened. That procurement needs independent scrutiny into every detail of the process, and Willie Rennie is right. No one has taken responsibility. At best, this is an incompetent Government. At worst, it is dishonest. Our amendment talks about the workforce at Ferguson's, and sadly, they too have been let down as highlighted by Neil Bibby. The Government must support the Ferguson's workforce to rebuild their reputation and grow in confidence. What is also unbelievable about all of this is that the Government finds calmac for cancellations and unreliable service. While it is the Government itself that is responsible, maybe they should use some of these fines to compensate businesses and the people facing the cost of these cancellations. Katie Clark said that we need urgent action, but the Minister is now saying that she cannot act because she needs to consult with islanders, yet her Government failed to consult initially. We all know that islanders wanted smaller, faster boats with more sailings and more flexibility in the fleet, but they did not get that. Presiding Officer, there must be an independent inquiry. We have little confidence that the Scottish Government will furnish Audit Scotland with the information that they need to investigate. We know in the past that they have withheld information, making it impossible for Audit Scotland to do their jobs. The winter is coming when disruption is at its highest and islanders cannot wait for action. The Minister blames the weather, but frankly it is not the weather, it is the wrong ferry on the wrong route in the winter. This is Scotland after all. We expect bad weather in the winter. What islanders need are good, reliable boats to serve the community so that people can work, build businesses and get to family and health appointments. Islanders have suffered too long and this incompetent Government needs to act now. Thank you, Ms Grant. I now call on Deputy First Minister John Swinney to wind up on behalf of the Scottish Government up to five minutes, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I acknowledged in my response to the urgent question from Graham Simpson yesterday the significance of the issues raised by the BBC disclosure programme and having watched the programme last night, I reiterate my concerns about the issues that were raised. Graham Simpson asked me yesterday what the Government was doing about that and I responded by indicating that we had taken the step to ask our permanent secretary to raise the issues that had been put to us at the end of last week with Audit Scotland and I welcome the statement made by the Auditor General yesterday afternoon that Audit Scotland will consider whether further scrutiny work is required. As I confirmed yesterday to Parliament and I hope this gives Mr Bibby some reassurance, the Government, Sea Mall and Ferguson's, will fully engage with and support any work that is undertaken by Audit Scotland in that respect. In relation to the procurement of 801 and 802 and the delivery of those vessels, I have accepted this in Parliament. I accept my share of collective responsibility for the fact that those vessels have not been delivered on time and on budget. I deeply regret that. I regret that for the impact on the reputation of Ferguson's. I regret it for the impact that it has had on Islanders because, again, in relation to Mr Bibby's points, had those ferries been delivered, we would have had two newer vessels at an earlier stage providing resilience within the network and would have given us the ability to have reserved vessels available in the way that we used to have with the MV Isle of Arran, which would have given us the capacity to have available for particularly winter resilience. I comment on a letter to the net zero committee this afternoon, which indicates that Ferguson's is going to delay the 802 vessel by another quarter. What will the implications of that be for the island communities that that would serve? I am obviously aware of the letter that Ferguson's has sent to the net zero committee today. What the Government will be doing is interrogating the report that has come from Ferguson's with appropriate due diligence to determine what is our response to the points that have been raised by Ferguson's. I stress that, and I will come on to say this in a moment, there is a necessity for sustained investment in the ferry network and the Government has, of course, committed to that in other respects. We all know that delays cost money. There is no mention of the extra cost in that letter to the net zero committee. Will the Government be worried about that and what will it be doing? That is precisely what I have addressed in my response to Mr Rennie. We will be carrying out due diligence on the points that are raised with us by Ferguson's and the update that has come forward. Obviously, I want to minimise any further cost to the public purse as a consequence. Before I leave the question of the procurement of 801 and 802, I want to use this opportunity to place on record my deep personal appreciation to the contribution of Alex Logan and John McMunnigal, who appeared in the disclosure programme last night, to find individuals that I met when I went—well, I met them many years ago before Ferguson's got into difficulties in 2014. Throughout, they have been faithful servants of Ferguson's, and I thank them for their contribution and the generous welcome that they have always extended to me in my associations with them. Over the course of the last 10 years or so, the Government's investment in ferries has increased from £140 million in 2013-14 to £315 million in this financial year. If Katie Clark would—I'm afraid I'm going to have to draw my remarks towards my time—I've got some ground to cover, which indicates the significant investment that the Government has made in ferries. There has been commitments to new routes that have been delivered—Malikwok Boysdale, for example, Ardrossan Cumbulltown, extra sailings to Collinsea, to Collin Tyree. There have been a whole host of elements of the ferries plan implemented as we expanded services. We have procured 801 and 802 and the two Eila-class ferries that will be delivered in 24-25. There is expansion of the network and investment in the network. In relation to performance, it is important that any ferry that is cancelled is inconvenient to either islanders or to members of the public, whatever their reasons for being in the islands. I would point out that, in 2021, only 1 per cent of services were cancelled because of mechanical issues. Three times as many were cancelled because of weather conditions. Obviously, there has been a disruption to the network because of Covid and Covid infections spreading. Let me close, Presiding Officer, on what I think is an interesting element of the debate that is emerging around project Neptune, which the Transport Minister briefed Parliament about three weeks ago. It is raised also by the contribution by Katie Clark. I was not able to follow all the elements of what Katie Clark was raising, but what she raised was the importance of there being no unbundling, which the Government agrees with, and there being no privatisation, which the Government agrees with. I welcome the opportunity to place that on the record. Graham Simpson, of course, on the radio this morning, made it clear that, in his speech today, the Conservatives are interested in privatising the CalMac network. Let me put it on the record that the Government will have nothing to do with that. I now call on Jamie Greene to wind up on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives up to seven minutes. Thank you. It feels like 100 years ago, since I gave my maiden speech in this Parliament in May 2016. As with most maiden speeches, as is tradition, I spoke about the great beauty of my area, but also the local issues that local people face on a daily basis. Specifically and unapologetically, I addressed the issue of connectivity. Connectivity, strong transport links to our communities and, yes, that includes our island communities. Sadly, since that speech, things have gone from bad to worse for our island communities. A situation best summed up in the BBC programme that we speak of today, which I think finally gave the wider public visibility of a situation that has played out in this building for many years already, is truly a dire situation that our islanders are in. What am I talking about? Ferries. Ferries, ferries and then some more ferries. Did I mention ferries? I hope that I make that clear enough for you, Mr Wishart, if you are tweeting about today's proceedings. We make no apologies for raising the issue of ferries in our debating time, and frankly it is shameful that the Government does not do it more. I do not need to repeat the endless conversation about what is simply a murkiness around the awarding of those contracts to Ferries. However, I will note one thing, and that is Mr Sweeney. The Deputy First Minister was very keen in the media to stress that not a single Government Minister put a single ounce of pressure to anyone in CML to award this contract to Ferries, and he made that claim, and I hope that it is true. However, it does beg the question that if it transpires that this award process was irregular, improper or even illegal, then the truth must emerge, Mr Sweeney. The simple question is who was driving all of this, who was really in charge in calling the shots and decision making, because all we've had so far is endless buck passing, endless excuse making and endless finger pointing. Not a single head has rolled for any of this, and it's a scandal. Presiding Officer, this was a private sector company. The police would have been called youngs ago. It's unbelievable that no one has sought to get to the truth of this. The whole country heard last night where our islanders have known for a very long time what ferry failures look like in real life. I say to Mr MacLennan who said that it's been a tough few years for our islands. Yes, it has. I'm going to nominate him for award of understatement of the year at tonight's Holyrood Awards, because this is what tough looks like, Mr MacLennan. Tough means businesses factoring in cash flow problems, writing off the bottom line in their P&L because of ferry problems. Tough is the young student on Iona losing up to a third of his schooling because of ferry problems. Tough is the ferry group who had to beg their community to fund an investigatory feasibility study for a vessel that they had to find themselves only to be knocked back by government agencies. That's what tough looks like for our island communities, and it's no surprise why, because the average age of a Camac vessel is 24 years. Is it any wonder we've ended up here? Let me say to Ms Rorock about statistics. On the Arran route, there were 373 delayed sailings in the whole of 2007. By July of this year, halfway through the year, that number had tripled already. The number of technical folks unrelated to weather, Mr Swinney, is up 81 per cent in the last four years alone. All of this comes at a cost, a financial cost, an operational cost, and as we hear too often, human cost. Now it was the SNP's 2007 manifesto which promised a fairer deal for our islands. A repeated manifesto promise in 2011, where they stated to the voters, elect us and we will place the needs of our island communities at the very centre of the government's agenda. What a shallow promise that turned out to be, and then what about the flagship blueprint for ferries in 2012, the Scottish ferry services plan where Keith Brown proclaimed, we are fully committed to delivering first-class sustainable services to our communities. Stimulating social and economic growth right across Scotland, that plan included six new ferries that they haven't even delivered to. Ten years on from that plan. Ten years on, there's no new plan nor even any hint of one. I would say project Neptune, yes of course it's welcome, but it focuses on the governance structures. What it is not, however, is a comprehensive ferry replacement and procurement plan. It's still missing. Hulls 801 and 802, yes, they may eventually come into service, but that's two vessels. Just two. In 16 of Calmax vessels are over 25 years old. We've learned today, just as we're speaking, that there's even more slippage to that programme and there remains significant risk. More delays, potentially more costs and an ironic twist of fate. The reality that many of us have actually warned about is that the Glen Sannocks may only sail on one single fuel, the so-called LNG dual fuel model, the green solution to marine transport and the cause of so many problems in the ferry building process might not even be used. Let's go back to that 2012 plan from the centre benches. There will always be sufficient capacity on routes to meet demand, they promise. What a joke that is because when one boat breaks down, they take one from another route, they take it from one island and give it to another, pitting island against island. It's no wonder that the iron ferry action group described this as the island wheel of misfortune because they and many others are genuinely worried about this forthcoming winter. There's a disgraceful inevitability about it. They're staring down the barrel of this ageing fleet, a fleet which is breaking down and letting them down. Last winter, entire routes cancelled, travellers stranded, people genuinely struggling for supplies, medical appointments missed, misery, it went on and on, and this year's Calmax winter timetable is also late. It is that lack of consultation and a lack of listening that has got us to where we are today. We are listening to communities and they are saying what a disastrous mess your government has made of the ferry network and you should be a shame. And Minister, don't get me wrong, don't get me wrong. Members, Mr Greene, please assume your seat for a second. Members, could I please ask that they're not be shouting across the chamber? Mr Greene, please continue. The current transport minister is the fifth such minister in so many years and of course wasn't responsible for those decisions but must take accountability and responsibility for the actions of her government because no one else seems to be doing it. The lads in Port Glasgow summed it up nicely in the yard. They, on the telly last night, said to us, said to the nation, it's never been about the workforce, it's all about the leadership. Well, I agree and that starts with leadership and it starts with political leadership and what we've seen today is very little of that, no leadership and no accountability. That has to change, bizarre officer, and it has to change now. Thank you, Mr Greene. That concludes the debate on Scottish Government handling of ferry contracts. It is now time to move on to the next item of business and I will allow a very brief pause to allow front bench teams to change position. Thank you.