A lot of the questions that I wanted to ask have been eloquently put by the deputy convener.

Michael, I bet you wish that you had got the group up and running really early on, when we were not worried that there were more cross-party groups than back-bench MSPs. I think that we are into triple figures now, which causes us concern. I observe that a lot of your members are sitting on more than four cross-party groups, and I think that four is probably pushing it if they are to give each group their full attention.

I am taken by the subject area that you want to look at. Every local authority has a slightly different approach to that area. To be parochial, how will you rope the Highlands into something that will be happening down in Edinburgh? How will you include Orkney and Shetland, which might take a slightly different approach than is taken in the Western Isles? I am interested in how you will touch on that.

Centralised vaccination centres simply do not work in rural areas. One house-bound and vulnerable elderly couple in Strathspey have been given their appointments on two different days in two different locations, with one being asked to make an eight-hour round trip of 70 miles to Inverness. That does not fit in with the cabinet secretary’s statement to provide more local centres. I favour GPs in rural areas rolling out vaccines, as they did earlier in the pandemic. If GPs are willing to do that, is the cabinet secretary willing to support them?

The answer is that they will be delivered on the latest timescale and on the latest budget. We know that there is only £30 million left in the budget pot and at least another 15 months of build time, so, to be frank, an overspend is probably inevitable.

Given the latest disastrous information on harbour upgrades, in what year will both ferries be operational on their planned routes?

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can confirm whether hull 801 will be delivered by May 2023 and hull 802 by December 2023 and within the latest cost to complete budget of £123 million. (S6T-00844)

There we have it. We have a Scottish Government that does not even know when the infrastructure will be in place to allow the ferries to operate on the routes. We have a Scottish Government that mucked up the contract, with the nationalisation of the yard. It will overspend its budget and delay building the harbour infrastructure that we so desperately need. What more could possibly have gone wrong?

Thank you for allowing me to ask those questions, convener.

This is the second time that I have been to the committee, but I again remind members that I have an interest in a family farm. It does not have lambs on it, for which I might be thankful.

Minister, I have a couple of what I think are interesting comments to make about licensing. I think that Jim Fairlie is right: flushing a fox out of a wood can be preventative if it moves the fox on before lambing starts. Foxes will use the same ground each year and should be moved on before lambing starts. However, I am concerned about the requirement to provide evidence of damage. If evidence of damage has to be submitted during the short lambing period, everyone will want to use the same dogs for the same 14-day period to flush foxes out of the woods to waiting guns. How will that issue be addressed?

So, you have no preconception about the number of dogs that might be required in any circumstance. As you have rightly said, the aim is to get the fox out and shot as quickly as possible, without it being chased, and that will require the use of more than two dogs. Am I right in saying that you have no preconception about the number of dogs?

I will be interested to see how the licence pans out. Mr Dignon will know that, in previous licensing schemes, gamekeepers were required to keep poults in a freezer until they had been inspected by Scottish Natural Heritage, in order to prove that they had been damaged by the species in question.

Lord Bonomy made a very interesting point about the number of dogs required to cover an area of ground. He said that more than two dogs and half a dozen guns would be needed to cover a 200-acre block of forestry. In your view, what would be an acceptable number of dogs? You said that you have been thinking about licensing. If somebody applied for a licence to use 10 dogs, would that be sufficient or too many? How about 15? Where is the limit?

In the case of old stone properties, getting to EPC band C will not be easy. For example, it has been suggested that getting Bute House to EPC band C will cost in excess of half a million pounds. The level of the grants that are being mentioned will not be sufficient for most houses to reach the required standard. What does the minister consider to be a reasonable investment in a property to reach EPC band C, and will he cap expenditure at that level?