Chamber and committees

The next questions come from Mark Ruskell.

Rob, do you think that the ability to flex up and down in order to meet demand and to ensure that boats are not running half full is the way forward and will allow more maintenance?

Do you wish to comment, Martin?

Good morning and welcome to the 29th meeting in 2022 of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee. We have received apologies from Natalie Don.

Agenda item 1 is consideration of whether to take items 3 to 6 in private. Item 3 is consideration of the evidence that we will hear today; item 4 is consideration of a draft report on Environmental Standards Scotland’s strategic plan; item 5 is consideration of a draft letter to the Scottish Government on environmental common frameworks; and item 6 is consideration of the committee’s work programme. Is everyone happy to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

That reflects members’ experience when we visited Arran yesterday; one of our ferry trips was cancelled, so we had to leave without completing our business.

Martin, well done. No one noticed you being kicked under the table to correct your earlier answer with more information.

Liam Kerr wants to come in with a question on the back of that.

Peter—do you want to add anything?

That is helpful. I want to come back to Peter Clark and then ask a general question of everyone, to close the session.

Freight demand has never been greater. We heard that your industry is doing particularly well on Islay, Peter. Is it getting to the stage at which you might have to consider purchasing or acquiring the services of a ferry operator just to service your industry so that it gets the reliability that it needs?

I think that there used to be a flight between Glasgow and Islay; I remember catching it to go over to one distillery, and it was used by all the main distillers on Islay. Does that still operate?

I am going to push this a bit, if I may. On the route that we were on yesterday, the people involved seem to be going for a bigger ship of 102m, which compares with the nearly 30 years old MV Caledonian Isles at 94m, and MV Hebridean Isles, which is 84m. They seem to be going for a bigger boat with increased passenger capacity, but at our previous meeting Western Ferries Ltd told us that it favours smaller boats that it could ensure were full and which it could flex up and down as required in order to meet demand. Peter, would you support having more flexibility in order to deliver the reliability and resilience that islanders rightly demand from their ferry services??