Chamber and committees

Can you write to the committee to say whether any private funding was sourced?

I put the same question about the pressures on funding to Pippa Milne. Do you believe that the islands plan has been funded sufficiently? What impacts has it had on Argyll and Bute?

Pippa Milne, you talked about complexity and the pressure on resource. Is there a way that you could feed those things in so that you could shape the next process for the submission of bids in order to simplify it and provide a less complex solution? Do you have that opportunity? If you did, what would you say?

I have quite a simple question about whether the ambitions of the islands plan are being properly funded. We have talked about the stretch on funding, but do you believe that the funding that was already available is almost being regurgitated within the landscape of current funding? How does that look?

Obviously, there are multiple strands of funding. Today we have heard how difficult it is in terms of time and resource to get hold of that funding. Do you believe that some of those funds are over and above your funding through the local government settlement or do they replace that funding?

That sounds complicated, but I think that the witnesses will know where I am coming from. That question is for Gareth Waterson.

Do you agree with Gareth Waterson that there should be a national ferry funding plan?

Was there an interview panel that involved islanders?

Russell, is North Ayrshire Council feeling the same pinch in relation to the budgets that you have available to allocate for the issues to which islanders most need funding to be allocated?

Where did the other half come from?

How is the investment panel picked? Witnesses in the earlier evidence session said that they felt that island communities were not empowered, because they were not directly represented on the investment panel. A statement was also made that that process was removed from the spirit of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018, which was created to put islanders at the heart of decision making. May I start with Neil Rutherford?

I am sorry to press you on this, but comments were also made that the resources were not there to ensure that bids were made and were value for money so that there was efficient use of local authority time when compared with projects themselves. Those comments are from a monetary point of view, but there is lots of stuff to learn in here. My question is: was this the right decision and would you make a change?