Seòmar agus comataidhean

I understand.

There has certainly been a suggestion that some of what has been ordered historically and is likely to be ordered going forward is not best suited to particular routes or particular facilities. It would be interesting to hear your view on that. Can you explain to the committee how you ensure, and will ensure, that whatever is procured, whether we are talking about vessels or harbours, is best suited to the particular routes and communities that it will serve?

I understand the answer, but I will press you on that. I asked you what is the new inflationary cost of the plans on the long-term plan that is still at the working-draft stage. Should the Government not be very quickly assessing the fact that CMAL thinks that there is a £1.4 billion cost? We are in inflationary times, so when will you be able to revert to CMAL and say: “Okay, here is what is happening with inflation, so here is the real cost, if we are to achieve what you have set out in the long-term plan”?

Good morning, minister. To follow on from that questioning from Mark Ruskell, the current CHFS contract ends in October 2024. Where are we when it comes to future planning for the service delivery and the process of tendering? Will it be a problem, or is there a concern, that the contract is—presumably—in the planning stages now, before the islands connectivity plan or the long-term plan are finalised, or even before they are at the working draft stage?

I understand.

Minister, you talked about the consultation on project Neptune. One of Ernst & Young’s recommendations was that the key commercial principles and long-term strategic objectives should be agreed by summer 2022. Have those been agreed?

I have a follow-up question to something that Kevin Hobbs said earlier. I asked you about the contract for the ferries that are being built in Turkey. Specifically, you said that there was no stipulation in that contract to use Scottish, UK or EU supply chain where possible. I have seen such clauses in other sectors, so I want to clarify who would have put that in, if such a clause had been desired in the contract to build the ferries in Turkey. Would that have been within CMAL’s gift, or would you have waited for instruction from the Scottish Government to put that in as part of the contractual criteria?

I would be very grateful for that.

Just for completeness, how much is it going to cost? What is the total funding required to achieve what it sounds like you are trying to achieve?

I have one final question at this stage. In your opening statement, you mentioned the long-term plan for vessels and ports. I was interested in the part of the plan that states:

“We will reduce the average age of the fleet to around 15 years by the end of this decade.”

In our earlier session today, representatives from CMAL talked about their plans to do that. They are reasonably confident that they will be able to achieve that, but they also talked about the cost of doing so. You might have heard the chief executive say right at the end that CMAL needs money to replace ferries. I think that I heard them say that the cost of that was £1.4 billion even before inflation reached its current level. Do you have an idea of the cost—adjusted for inflation—of achieving a fleet with an average age of 15 years by the end of the decade, and will CMAL have enough money to do that?

I understand. Unless Stuart Garrett has a different experience that he wants to comment on, I will stay with Robbie Drummond for a final question.

Robbie, you mentioned that the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services contract will be up in October 2024. Are you already in discussions with Transport Scotland about what will happen after that date? If so, where are those discussions?