Chamber and committees

Okay. Thanks, convener.

Are you locked in for the full term of the contract? Is there any get-out at all?

I want to move on to the future of Ferguson Marine. It is now publicly owned and therefore fully funded by the taxpayer. With regard to the questions that have been posed about the small vessel replacement, you say that that is a decision for the transport secretary, but are your teams issuing any warnings about subsidy control or state aid issues that might prohibit the Government’s ability to directly award future vessel procurement to Ferguson Marine—or is that simply not an issue and it is a wider decision about who is best placed to manufacture the vessels?

The problem that I have is that it is almost eight years to the day since I sat in a committee room three floors up from the one that we are in now with a Government minister in front of me and asked what their exit strategy for Prestwick airport was. What faith can we have that you guys are the ones who will deliver the exit strategies for Ferguson and Prestwick, given that there seems to be a lack of progress on both?

How do you respond to accusations from the commercial sector in each of those markets that Government intervention is in some way distorting the commercial market? For example, with regard to Prestwick airport, Glasgow airport was very vocal about that accusation over the years.

That is good to know.

What I have heard about Lochaber smelter is quite concerning, and I am sure that we all share that concern. My understanding is that the Scottish Government has committed to a 25-year guarantee. Audit Scotland has estimated the exposure to the public purse to be in the range of between £14 million and £32 million a year over the contract. What is your current estimate of exposure and how much public money has been invested in the business to date? If you do not have those numbers now, you can write to us with them.

Who is the current chairman of the board?

He failed to return that to the private sector. Do you have confidence that he can do it at Ferguson’s?

Why do you think that, two weeks ago, David Tydeman, the former chief executive of Ferguson’s, told the media that he had absolutely no idea why he was sacked?

Mr Irwin, I have a wider question—it is a bit of a chicken-and-egg question—about the fact that the business has obviously come to the Government to ask for support, for many of the reasons that you have outlined. Which of those decisions are made purely as good business decisions, and which are made as political and strategic decisions? Are you directed by ministers to make something work if they choose to invest in a failing business, or are you approaching ministers with opportunities and saying, “These are businesses that you could invest in as a Government”? Which way round is it?