Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 23 March 2022
No.
There was then the £45 million loan to FMEL; we do not know what good that did. As things went belly up, the Government decided to nationalise the yard, but it had absolutely no idea what the condition of the boats was when it did so, so it could not have predicted how costs would rise.
Despite advice from PWC, there was no exit strategy—a bit like the situation with Prestwick airport. That is scandalous. Throughout the process, the various parties have been squabbling like children, unable to get on. There have been a string of disasters, with the latest being the discovery that the cables that were fitted on the vessel that was launched with blacked-out windows by Nicola Sturgeon in 2017 are now too short.
No one has accepted blame for that, or for anything in this fiasco. Ministers and others—including the highly paid and mistitled turnaround director—have moved on, but nobody’s head has rolled. That is the problem. There is no accountability—none—not just in Ferguson’s, but in the entire ferry system and especially in Government. To get to the bottom of that, we need a public inquiry.
There is a telling sentence in the Audit Scotland report, which states:
“The two new vessels, and subsequent additions and disposals, were expected to reduce the average age of CMAL’s major vessel fleet from 21 years ... to 12 years by 2025.”
How are we doing on that? The average age of the CalMac Ferries Ltd fleet is 23 years. The situation has got worse, and nobody’s head has rolled. We need new ferries, and we need to increase the budget for that in order to catch up. Graeme Dey reckoned that it would take £1.5 billion over 10 years; we are saying that it requires £1.4 billion. That would create a pipeline of work that could herald a boost for Scottish shipbuilding.
This is not some obscure topic. Having an ageing and unreliable ferry fleet affects people’s lives. This week, I have been speaking to island campaigners on Arran, Mull and Iona. A psychotherapist told me that he is dealing with increasing numbers of stressed-out patients. Other people have said that they have not been able to get to hospital appointments, because they cannot book a car space less than a few weeks in advance. The situation is also affecting tourism.
I have heard of bare shelves in shops, and I have seen the photographic evidence. Farmers cannot get feed and cannot get their animals to market. It goes on. Kids cannot get to school. People are thinking of giving up island life altogether—under the SNP.