For the purpose of clarification, I point out that the MOD is charged to defend the United Kingdom and has a budget for that.

However, the request for assistance with the Corran ferry has been made through a military aid to the civil authorities request. My understanding is that MACA assists civil authorities and it is up to the military to ascertain whether the assets are available and fit for deployment. It is normally up to the civil authorities to cover the costs of such deployments, in line with HM Treasury rules, although the MOD may, of course, defer costs. It is therefore unclear in this case whether the costs will be met by the Scottish Government or Highland Council.

Presiding Officer, I raise this point of order because I believe that the First Minister may have inadvertently misled the Parliament. [Interruption.] If members do not like to hear the point of order—

I will come to a lot of species, if I may.

Along with capercaillies, there are the other important ground-nesting birds that we see around the Cairngorms. That does not include just curlews and birds that nest on grassland outside woodland edges; it includes shanks and pipers, which would nest in areas of afforestation, exactly where they would be found by lynx.

We have an appalling track record when it comes to the reintroduction of species. I will talk about beavers, as Mr Gibson mentioned them. We should not forget that beavers were illegally reintroduced into this country in Tayside and that they have spread out since. In fact, I was on the committee that heard Roseanna Cunningham explaining that, if we allowed them to go further, they would not be spread by humans beyond that—they would have to spread out naturally—and that lethal control would still be part of the positive management action that would need to be undertaken in relation to that species.

We now have a minister who has changed all that. We are allowing beavers and talking about relocating beavers into areas such as Glen Affric, where they have never been before. I can proudly hold up my hand and say that I have been managing managed land around Glen Affric and have personally authorised the culling of approximately 30,000 deer to allow the trees to grow. Now we are going to bring in an animal that will eat them and knock them all down. That does not make much sense to me.

Mr Gibson mentioned sea eagles. We brought sea eagles back and they are great because we can actually see them. We rarely see beavers, but we can see sea eagles. However, they come with problems. They take lambs and sheep, and farmers on Skye contact me regularly about the need to control sea eagles and prevent them from taking the lambs from their hefted flocks, which prevents farmers from carrying out future activities. In fact, we are paying farmers quite a lot of money when it comes to the loss of lambs.

On other species that we are trying to protect, I want to mention the wild cat. It is a personal issue for me to see wild cats reintroduced. I have spent a huge amount of time going to the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland to make sure that we are getting wild cats back. They will be in direct competition with lynx and lynx are not going to do them any favours.

So when it comes to the lynx, we in the Highlands are seeing the central belt saying that it is fine to put lynx up into the Highlands, while in the Highlands farmers are despairing at the suggestion that lynx are going to be brought in. Conservation bodies for important species such capercaillie and wild cats are despairing when it comes to reintroducing lynx because the very species that they are trying to protect will become prey.

A lot of noise is made about how beavers are going to increase tourism. I want to know how many tourists have actually seen a beaver, and if lynx were to come back, I want to know how many tourists would actually see one. I doubt very much that there would be many.

On the reintroduction of the lynx, the previous minister for agriculture said at a conference, “Over my dead body”, but I hope that we do not see Fergus Ewing’s dead body as lynx are railroaded into the islands. I send out this message as my final point. Keep your lynx ideas and your lynx effects to yourself. We do not want them in the Highlands.

I totally appreciate that other predators, such as foxes and wildcats, could be killed, but the lynx are also going to kill ground-nesting birds—in the Cairngorms, the very ground-nesting birds that we are red listing as an endangered species: the capercaillie. Does Christine Grahame accept that capercaillie would be put under increased threat by lynx?

—they can leave. Implying that no payment is required—

I was asking whether the minister believes that lethal control should be part of the management options when species are reintroduced.

Will the member take an intervention?

I want to be clear about the minister’s views on the management of all species. Do you believe that lethal control should be part of the management options?

Before I start my question, I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests. I have been involved in a farming partnership for more than 40 years.

To ask the Scottish Government whether all farmers will have the ability to apply for, and be granted, all conditionality payments under its new agricultural support scheme. (S6O-02102)

Unfortunately, that did not answer the question; let us try one more time. Fifty per cent of the future farm payment will be based on conditionality. Will all farmers across Scotland be able to apply for and be granted those grants, if appropriate—yes or no?

I will pick up on Stuart Hay’s point about parking outside schools. I absolutely understand that in an urban conurbation. I will ask you the same question for rural settings, where there are no buses, where probably the only place to park is outside the school and where a lot of people rely on private transport to get their children to school. How do you solve that problem? Will one size fit all?