Oh—I am in my last minute. I am sorry, cabinet secretary.

As well as the problem with short-term lets, which I am happy to discuss later with the cabinet secretary, the idea of a tourism tax has been raised. A tourism tax will not work. The reason why it works in Europe is that there is a lower rate of VAT there.

In summary, I say to the Government: please do not kill the goose that lays the golden egg. That is exactly what it is doing at the moment.

I declare an interest in that I jointly own a fishery on the river Spey that relies on tourism and contributes to the £20 million that is generated by fishing on Speyside alone.

Scotland has a great story to tell when it comes to tourism. We have a sector that contributes £4.5 billion to our economy, that accounts for one in 11 jobs and that sees visitors spend over £1 billion on eating and drinking as well. That is the good news.

Only a fool would kill the goose that lays the golden egg. That is what we seem to be seeing this afternoon, and it is extremely dangerous. We seem to be hearing from industry that things are going badly wrong. We have heard from the chief executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance that Government policies

“will do limited good and risk maximum harm”.

Why would you do that? Why would anyone do that?

Some of the failings that we have heard about this afternoon are quite interesting. We have talked about transport. We have some great destinations up in the Highlands and Islands, and we would love people to come and visit them, but they cannot. Why? Because there are no ferries, or the ferries are delayed, or they are broken down, or there is booking chaos.

I am really interested that Keith Brown is sitting at the back of the chamber and will not comment on the ferries when he is one of the people who contributed to the fact that 801 and 802 were not delivered on time. What islanders would say to Mr Brown is, “Shame on you,” because they are losing out.

What I will accept is that the last new ferry that was delivered to the Scottish ferry fleet was in 2015. For goodness’ sake, we are eight years on. We need some new ferries. Get on with it. We were promised them in 2016.

I know of businesses across the Highlands and Islands that are already cutting their commitments for 2024. About 10 per cent of them are wondering whether they should stop being in business. A lot of businesses are getting cancellations from repeat customers because they cannot guarantee that they will be able to arrive on time—what a sorry state of affairs that is.

We have heard briefly about the A9. I will not reiterate all the points, but I travel on the road twice a week, as I come down to Parliament and go back home on it. Tourists who use the A9 to get up to or around the Highlands will be as shocked as I am when I drive on it, not only by the potholes but by the driving and the standard of the road, which are extremely poor. In 2007, we were promised that we would get a new A9, but it still has not been delivered.

I will touch briefly on short-term lets. We have discussed those and the Government has legislated on them. That is a really bad idea in the Highlands and Islands, because we rely on short-term lets to get tourists to come to the area and spend money in the local economy. The local authority has been tasked with sorting out the licensing scheme, but it has dealt with only about one fifth of the applications that it has received. Since March this year, some applications in Highland Council have been put on hold because the process is too difficult to deliver. [Interruption.]

If the cabinet secretary wants to stand up and tell me that I am wrong, he should do that. If not, I would suggest—

Neil Gray rose—

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of Creative Scotland’s total awards funding was allocated to the Highlands and Islands in the last financial year. (S6O-02329)

I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer, although, given the size of the area involved, I would have hoped for more.

Eden Court theatre is a valuable asset to the community of the Highlands. Through its participation in the Warm Welcome Campaign and the introduction of low-income tickets, the venue has supported residents through the global cost of living crisis. However, like many other Scottish theatre venues, Eden Court continues to face significant funding challenges. Will the cabinet secretary agree to look at what further funds could be made available to the theatre in these difficult times?

To ask the Scottish Government how many mothers from Moray it anticipates will give birth at Raigmore each year until the new service at Dr Gray’s is up and running, in light of its decision in December 2022 not to continue with model 4. (S6O-02300)

NHS Highland is spending £9 million to expand Raigmore’s maternity unit, with the help of a £5 million allocation from the Scottish Government. Can the minister explain how Raigmore will cope with an estimated 500 extra births per year, as was explained at the board meeting yesterday, when the updated unit, when built, will increase capacity by only one additional bed space in the labour suite?

Thank you. The next questions come from Jackie Dunbar.

One of the reasons why Abellio lost the contract was its failure to meet that target. I remember having lots of discussions with you about that in the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee in 2019. Now, we have fewer trains, so there should be fewer problems, which means that we should be hitting the targets, but we are not. Was it wrong to criticise Abellio? It seems that you are blaming the failure on the weather, which Abellio was never given the opportunity of doing. I do not know the answer; I am struggling to understand.

When do you imagine that you will reach the target that you aspire to?