Where’s your apology for ferry fiasco, FM?

CALMAC boss Robbie Drummond’s apology for recent disruptions to the service is a welcome recognition of what is a frustrating daily reality for passengers.

With one ferry removed from service and a range of sailings delayed or cancelled altogether, some passengers have been forced to sleep in their cars.

So when Mr Drummond says he is ‘deeply sorry’, it is important to point out that his customers are deeply sorry, too. Sorry, and angry, and frankly fed up. Not only with the encumbrances on their travels to and from the mainland but with the knock-on impacts. Island shopkeepers have even begun rationing food.

This is an intolerable situation. Yet despite an apology from CalMac, there has still to be one from Scottish ministers.

Mr Drummond warned of continuing disruptions until new ferries are ready to sail. Delays to their completion are part and parcel of the Scottish Government’s doomed relationship with Ferguson Marine, the yard from which SNP ministers commissioned two new ferries, which eventually had to be nationalised, and which still has not delivered the vessels.

In a competitive field, Ferguson Marine may be the worst waste of taxpayers’ money in 15 years of SNP rule. The price tag for the two ferries has soared from £97million to a quarter of a billion pounds.

Warnings about the suitability of the shipyard were ignored and a contract entered into even after the Scottish Government was aware Ferguson could not uphold its end of the bargain by giving an industry-standard refund guarantee. The vessels are now scheduled to set sail five years late.

Make no mistake: this shocking episode of governmental incompetence and cluelessness is directly to blame for the delays and cancellations passengers are currently suffering. No one need explain to islanders why, even now, all they hear from ministers is warm words.

Even so, island communities and other ferry passengers are due one more apology – from Nicola Sturgeon. She has presided over this mess and failed islanders time and again.