Meeting of the Parliament 14 June 2023
Mr Sweeney’s comments come on the back of my full recognition of the need to improve CalMac’s reliability and rebuild confidence in the fleet, so that should let him know that, to some extent, I agree that there is work to be done.
I deeply regret that the needs of island communities have not always been met by CalMac services and that CalMac’s communications have not always been sufficient or timeous. However, I do not want to just regret; I want to have a plan of action for how the Government can do all that we can, all that is practicable and all that is in our gift to bolster the reliability of the network.
As I see it, there are two principal parts to that. First, there is the action that we can take in the here and now to alleviate disruption in what is undeniably a period of pressure. Secondly, the Government should make that period of pressure as short as possible by bolstering and adding to the number of vessels in the fleet. I will use my time today to set out what the Government is doing against both those objectives.
In relation to the here and now, I met the chief executive of CalMac last week. My first question to the CalMac management was how they intended to respond to the protests on South Uist, because, as politicians, we all know that it is essential that there is communication and a presence in communities.