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I am new to all this, so, just to sum up, are you saying that the other issues would solve themselves if we could fix affordability?

I want to ask both Pauls this question, if that is okay, and I would be happy if Mick Hogg wanted to come in at any point.

What are the key challenges in delivering the vision of a national transport strategy? How will that work as a long-term process and not just as an immediate issue?

Thank you.

Thank you very much. This is my first committee and I am glad to be here. Thank you for the warm welcome. I, too, have no interests to declare, but I am happy for anyone to look at my register of interests, if they want to.

Am I correct to say that you are in a difficult position and you therefore cannot produce a medium-term financial plan, or are you trying to work one up?

Thank you, convener. Hello, Mr Bruce. Thank you for attending. It is the first time that I have met you, so it is nice to see you.

The report is excellent. I note that some issues come across with regard to staffing capacity and performance. Specifically, there is a pertinent line in paragraph 25 on page 8, which states:

“while additional recruitment will help, it will take time for this to be completed and for new staff to be trained to the standard required”.

As much as I can accept that, I need to know a bit more about what training will be required, how long you anticipate it will take to get staff up to speed and how that will help your forward planning.

I have a few questions that home in entirely on young children, and on bits and pieces around child and adolescent mental health services.

The draft work programme refers to progress that has been made towards implementing recommendations that were made in earlier reports, such as the 2018 report on “Children and young people’s mental health”; the 2020 report on “Scotland’s City Regions and Growth Deals”; and the 2021 report on “Improving Outcomes for Young People through Education”. Can you give a brief update on that progress?

You said that you have three new members of staff, which is excellent. I am glad to hear that. However, we heard anecdotally that there would be a staff increase of up to 7.4 full-time equivalents, so you have been running on half. Is there a move to increase your staff by 7.4 full-time equivalents? Are you still recruiting? Also, is it the three new staff who will take until approximately this time next year to be fully up and running? Will you give a little more information on that?

I feel comfortable knowing that you have that information so that we could see it. That is great. Thank you for your answers.

So you could not give us an indication of how long you think it would take to get such a plan in place.