Meeting of the Parliament 16 June 2015
I am glad that Alex Johnstone raised that point: I am sure that I broke several local byelaws. He will know that I was piloting the boat to look for floating voters, but I did not find many.
Mr Brodie rightly made the analogy of harbours being the heartbeat of their local communities. He also made some good points about Ayr and Troon and some wider points about the important roles of fishing, sports and offshore renewables. I am glad that he, too, supports the excellent model of trust ports that we have across Scotland. We have a good mixture of trust ports, private ports and local authority ports, but trust ports are extremely important.
We heard from Margaret McDougall about the positive effects on freight, jobs and passengers, given the various ferry operators that we have.
I flag up that the ICI Committee is doing a first-class job—I would say that, wouldn’t I?—in inquiring into freight. Recently, we visited Rotterdam harbour, which the minister might wish to comment on in his closing remarks. It was the largest harbour in the world, and it is now the eighth largest. The point that I would like the minister to comment on in discussing best practice is that Rotterdam harbour not only provides a fantastic service for its clients but has developed a freight-only infrastructure that goes all the way to the gates of Germany, which is a fantastic resource. To look at best practice in the world must be good for the Scottish Government.
I will give one example in the brief time that I have left. On delivery of goods to Italy that might go through the Mediterranean Sea, large container ships do not stop in Italy, but go via Rotterdam so that they can use the freight-only rail service all the way to Italy. That is a good example of best practice and of services really making a difference in the world.