Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Debate: Scotland's Ferries

That the Parliament believes that islanders, island economies and all those reliant on vital ferry links are being severely let down by the failure to deliver a resilient ferry fleet; calls on the Scottish Government to increase funding to build new ferries in the next five years and to commit to spending £1.4 billion in the next 10 years in order to bring down the average age of ferries and to upgrade ports; is deeply alarmed and disappointed with the late arrival of new operational vessels for the Clyde and Hebridean routes; understands that the construction of vessels 801 and 802, which were due to be delivered in May and July 2018 respectively, are severely delayed; notes with disappointment that the Scottish Government has yet to confirm a revised timetable for the completion of vessels 801 and 802, following the identification of issues with the cabling; believes that the Scottish Government has made insufficient progress on acting on the recommendations set out in the report by the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee, in Session 5, on ferry construction and procurement; calls upon the Scottish Government to publish an unredacted copy of the Project Neptune report compiled by Ernst and Young, and further calls for a full public inquiry into the Scottish Government’s failure to renew the ageing ferry network based on a workable ferries plan.