Chamber and committees

We will see at the end of the meeting whether you stick to that belief. The first questions will come from Liam Kerr.

Before I come to Maggie Chapman, I should say that the clerk has reminded me that, in my original declaration, I reminded everyone about the power lines going through my farm. Of course, we receive a standard wayleave payment for that, as does everyone else, so there are payments involved. I should say, Jackie Dunbar, that they are not very much, in case you were worried that they were bigger than you had imagined—they are not.

Maggie Chapman, you wanted to ask some questions.

Those are all the questions that we have. Thank you for coming up here, minister. I know that you do not need any excuse to get closer to your home patch—for lack of a better description—but it is good to see you, to hear your answering questions that you might not have thought you were going to have to answer and to hear you doing so with openness. I appreciate your giving us your time, and I look forward to receiving correspondence on the areas on which you have undertaken to write to us. Our clerks will remind you of those areas after the meeting.

That is all that we have for you—thank you for your time. The committee will now go into private session.

This is pushing it.

I think that we will all agree with that. The cabinet secretary will understand the problems of buses in rural areas or those areas that have few such services, and I am sure that, after this meeting, she will accept an approach from Monica Lennon to discuss specific examples.

Mark Ruskell, I am happy to let you in if your question is very brief. I will then bring the session to a close.

We can ask the next panel that question, because we know where SEPA’s budget is going as a result of the last budget review.

The next questions are from Ash Regan.

Perfect—so it is back to Mark Ruskell.

Fiona, is there anything you want to add?

Thank you, Mark Roberts and Jamie McGrandles, for your evidence this morning. I think that you have left a few questions hanging for the cabinet secretary, who is coming in next. Thank you again for coming in.

I think that Liam Kerr wanted to come in here, too.