—but views on election expenses. I am sure that the minister accepts that.

Perhaps you could help me out, minister. I want to find out a bit more about the spending limits. The expenses limit of £740 is being increased. When was that limit put in place, and when was that sum last reviewed?

As I had hoped. [Laughter.] Maybe that is something to do with the broadcasting team.

I was asking about the £740 expenses limit, which has been reviewed. When was that amount set, and when was it last reviewed?

I suspect that it has been some time since you were a councillor, minister, but how many councillors were asked whether they thought that the spending limits were correct, and did that happen in every geographical area? It is much easier to deliver leaflets in your area than it is in, say, the north of Scotland, where there are huge geographical areas to cover. How many councillors were asked and what were their opinions?

Thank you, minister. How did you come up with the £66 figure? The figure is bizarre—it is an 8.918 per cent increase. How did you work it out?

If the increase is based purely on inflation, I am not sure how, even in calculating a cumulative inflation figure for the period, we would arrive at that figure.

The next election will be very different to previous elections because of Covid. I still believe that a lot more will have to be done remotely. I have argued the point before that, when it comes to parliamentary elections, there has been a huge shift from hand deliveries to postal deliveries. Do you think that the £66 increase is sufficient, given that it has probably already been accepted that the increase in the expenses limits for parliamentary elections will need to be bigger than the amount that would be delivered through a formulaic increase that is based on inflation?

You have answered the question that I was going to ask about how to reach out and include everyone who is suffering from long Covid. How will you make people who are suffering aware of all that you are trying to do? The group’s aim is very laudable, and it will be breaking new ground. You have partly answered my question, but I would appreciate it if you could give me a bit more information.

Indeed. My real concern is that I do not believe that the Government is capable of doing so.

I thank my colleague Jamie Halcro Johnston for securing this important debate.

It is no exaggeration to say that the current ferries crisis is a disaster for islanders and for Scotland. I agree with much of what has been said already in the debate. For the past 15 years, the SNP has failed to renew our ferry fleet, and we are left with 16 ships that are more than 25 years old.

The whole sorry saga of ferry mismanagement could become a film, the title of which would be “Carry On Without the Ferries”, with a working title of “£300 Million Spent With No Boats Delivered”. The farce has been funded by the people of Scotland at the expense of islanders. Transport Scotland staff are the directing agents, and they are ably assisted by CMAL.

The actors in the farce are numerous, and some deserve special mention. First, perhaps, is Alex Salmond, who played a key role in Jim McColl’s takeover of the Ferguson shipyard.

There is also the current First Minister, who announced the £97 million ferry contract and who went on to launch hull 801 with wooden windows, dummy funnels and no engines.

Humza Yousaf, who was the Minister for Transport and the Islands, failed to manage the contracts for hulls 801 and 802, and had no idea that they were so far behind schedule.

Derek Mackay was a key player, having signed off £127 million-worth of payments to Ferguson Marine, made up of 85 per cent of the contract payments for the two ferries. He also signed off a £45 million loan, which CMAL did not even know about. The result: half of one ferry, and even that was not fit for purpose.

Michael Matheson and Paul Wheelhouse announced delay after delay for the two vessels, but still argued that everything was fine and on budget.

Fiona Hyslop claimed that Ferguson’s had a “bright future” ahead of it, despite the fact that it would not be allowed to tender for any more ferries in the meantime.

Kate Forbes has ministerial responsibility for Tim Hair, the turnaround director of Ferguson’s, who is paid £2,850 a week and has received payment of more than £1 million. She has never renewed his contract and is oblivious to the fact that he has yet to deliver either vessel or that the previous company for which he was the turnaround director went into receivership.

As we have heard, Graeme Dey, who is now in charge of dealing with the situation, has failed to meet Tim Hair or even to visit the shipyard during the summer after his appointment.

The final actor in the farce is Ivan McKee, who, admittedly, has a very small walk-on part, but when he was challenged to defend the litany of failures, he said, “these things happen.”

I am sorry to report that I have heard that the Scottish Government has been nominated for the cash cow award, for awarding a £97 million contract that is likely to cost in excess of £300 million. If it wins the award, I wonder who will be asked to collect it. I do not suppose that there will be many volunteers, or many members of the Cabinet who have not had a role in the process.

It is an expensive failure, which is far from a joke. It is expensive to the people of Scotland and to the islanders who rely on our ferries and who desperately need new ones. Let us get the figures right—in the past year, our ferries have had 99 breakdowns and major disruptions to services, culminating in nearly 6,000 cancelled sailings.

I am sure that I do not need to remind the Parliament that the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee, which I was convener of, concluded that the fiasco was caused by

“a catastrophic failure in the management of the procurement of vessels”.

It also criticised the Government for not having a ferries plan; it never seems to have had one.

A resilient network of ferries is vital for the future of our island communities. For us to have such a network, we need a new, Scotland-wide ferries strategy; even more important, we need a Scottish Government that can deliver it. After 15 years of failure, it is time for the SNP to improve on its dismal record of failure. Our islanders desperately need the Government to up its game.

I will try to articulate my concern more clearly. Paragraph 4.18 states:

“I have a registrable interest where I own or have any other right or interest in houses, land and buildings”.

You will be aware that MSPs do not have to register their private houses or record them in their entry in the register of members’ interests. I wonder whether that specific matter might cause confusion to people on public bodies. They might feel that they have to register their private houses, which goes beyond what MSPs are requested to do.