Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you. Do the other witnesses want to comment on projects in their areas?

I do not underestimate the challenges on vessel replacement, but can Orkney Islands Council confirm whether the Scottish Government recently paid for half the costs of a replacement vessel, MV Nordic Sea, for the Papa Westray to Westray route?

There is a lively debate about how to ensure that the experience of living on an island is represented in the public sector more generally in Scotland. How did you ensure that island voices and the experience of living on an island were represented in the investment panel and other areas of your work? That question might be for Diarmaid Lawlor or Neil Rutherford.

Do any other witnesses have a view on that? Could you say a bit more about communities’ perspective on that issue? Did communities feel that the application process was user friendly? Were they supported in it? What were the options for support? I will go to one of the other local authorities—does Pippa Milne or Gareth Waterson want to comment on those questions?

You have mentioned issues around the cost of living and the cost of projects, which, obviously, come within a wider context. When the International Monetary Fund voices a note of alarm, we know that something has gone badly wrong.

On contracts specifically, I know from my experience in my constituency that people who run projects live in fear of retendering because of issues around increasing costs, particularly building costs. Have any of you experienced that? Have the cost of living and the cost of building created a new pressure on timescales for projects, many of which have been competing, as you have said?

I had indicated that I would like to ask a supplementary question, but if there is not time, there is not time.

I am interested in the carbon neutral islands programme. There are challenges around that for you and the public sector, not least because of inflation and the fact that the UK Government has presided over a situation in which the Scottish Government’s budget is worth £1.7 billion less in real terms than it was some months ago.

Could each of you say a wee bit more about the islands in your areas and how you will prioritise funding to ensure that there is totality in a project—that it will impact on the whole island rather than just on an aspect of its economy and society?

Do the people who are represented on the panel welcome the fact that the Government listened to the consultation responses on the islands bond, despite the fact that they were—to put it politely—rather mixed? Perhaps Russell McCutcheon wants to answer that.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh.

I thought that I might get my own question in at the end.