Hansard

There has been a certain element of reassurance from various councils. I note that there are two outstanding responses from councils and I believe that one of those is Highland Council, which is not surprising. I might be being cynical, but the issue will probably come up again. Given where we are with those reassurances—some of which are stronger than others—could there be a memorandum of understanding between the councils that have lifeline ferry ports and the Government or the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, or could something else be considered? Given the evidence that we have, I believe that we have taken matters as far as we can. I am happy to include the petition in the legacy report, or to close it and, in doing so, write back to the minister with recommendations. However, we are on our last day, and the obvious thing to do would be to close the petition. The petitioner is tenacious and determined, and I believe that, if the issue came up again in the future, it would be ready and waiting to come back to us, which would be a good idea, as would keeping an eye on other ferry ports around the country to make sure that the same thing does not happen anywhere else. I think that I have convinced myself that we can comfortably close the petition.