Meeting of the Parliament 19 March 2025
Sorry—I only have four minutes.
They were rightly doing what they thought was right for their constituents, but I am doing what is right for my constituents and my community. I do not think that the 50 jobs leaving Port Glasgow and going to Gourock is the right thing.
During one of the project Neptune briefing sessions that Jenny Gilruth offered, more than 10 MSPs were in the room, including Kenneth Gibson, Jenni Minto, Katy Clark, Paul Sweeney, Edward Mountain and others. Paul Sweeney proposed to close Ferguson Marine and move its operations to Inchgreen dry dock in Greenock. To say that I found that objectionable would be charitable, to say the least.
Mr Sweeney now appears to have tempered his view. He supports Ferguson Marine remaining open at Port Glasgow, with Inchgreen dry dock in Greenock operating at the same time. I do not disagree with Mr Sweeney on Inchgreen, because it has been sorely underused for many years, so we are on the same page on that. However, his initial proposal to move the yard from Port Glasgow would have decimated Port Glasgow town centre and taken 300 jobs from the community. It would also have gone against the Scottish Government’s 20-minute neighbourhood proposal. I have undertaken a lot of work with the local shopkeepers, and one shopkeeper in particular said to me that, if the yard leaves Port Glasgow—whether under the proposal that was made or due to the yard being shut because it did not have work—the town would be like it was in the 1980s all over again.
That brings me to Monday and the issue of the small vessels. Last night, at the cross-party group on maritime and shipbuilding, which Paul Sweeney chairs, Kevin Hobbs gave a presentation about what happened on Monday, with a focus on the 65 per cent and 35 per cent split. As I said in the chamber yesterday, the management and the board need to listen to their workforce and engage with them because, if they do not, the yard will struggle. The workforce have a lot of the answers, and it is up to the board and the management to listen and engage fully.
15:25