Ferries scandal ...what ferries scandal? asks First Minister
‘Insult to islanders’ as Sturgeon claims fiasco is merely a ‘situation’
‘Repeatedly let down by cancellations’
NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of insulting island communities by trying to deny the SNP’s ferries fiasco was a ‘scandal’.
Her comments about the Ferguson Marine contract were made despite two vessels being five years late and two and a half times over budget.
SNP ministers ignored warnings about the lack of industry-standard guarantees that would have protected taxpayers’ cash and signed a £97million contract in time to announce at the party’s 2015 conference.
The bill has since soared to a quarter of a billion pounds and the ferries have yet to sail to serve island communities facing chaos due to the current ageing fleet. But challenged over the lack of new ferries for the Ardrossan to Arran route and the Uig Triangle, the First Minister claimed the saga was a ‘situation’ rather than a ‘scandal’.
During an interview at the Edinburgh Fringe, LBC presenter Iain Dale asked the SNP leader about the ferry cancellations blighting island communities and tourists.
Mr Dale said: ‘You’ve been in power, the party’s been in power, since 2007. That’s ample time for that to have been sorted out.
‘I mean, there is clearly a scandal over how the procurement was managed, do you take responsibility for that?’
Miss Sturgeon insisted the ‘buck stops with me’ but said: ‘I take issue with your language’.
When Mr Dale asked what that issue was, she replied: ‘Well, “scandal”. I don’t think it’s a scandal.
‘I think there’s been a situation with these two ferries that I don’t think is acceptable and we’re learning lessons from that and focusing on putting that right.’ Island communities were originally promised the two vessels would be running by early 2018.
Four years on, the latest estimate from the now-nationalised shipyard is the first ferry, the Glen Sannox, will not be ready until March next year at the earliest.
The as-yet-unnamed hull 802 is scheduled for completion between October and December 2023.
Scottish Tory transport spokesman Graham Simpson said: ‘The SNP’s ferries fiasco is the very definition of a scandal – and Nicola Sturgeon trying to deny that is an insult to Scotland’s island communities who are paying a huge price for her government’s incompetence and cover-up.’
He added: ‘Islanders who rely on lifeline ferry services are repeatedly being let down by cancellations. If this isn’t a scandal, I dread to think what would constitute one in Nicola Sturgeon’s eyes.’
Erik Ostergaard, former chairman of government ship buyers CMal, told a Holyrood inquiry he had never known a contract to build a vessel be awarded without a refund guarantee in his 30 years in the shipping industry. He warned that Ferguson Marine had ‘no track record at all of building ferries of this size’, adding that the failure to include guarantees ‘is totally off the track of what is normal practice for the shipping industry in respect of contracting for new buildings’.
Despite the fears and warnings, SNP ministers instructed CMal to award the contract.
A spokesman for the Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘While CMal did express concerns about the absence of a full refund guarantee, it put measures in place to mitigate those risks.’