Ministers confident Ferguson Marine can build four new vessels, says Kate Forbes

The Deputy First Minister has defended plans to hand the contract for four new vessels to the state-owned shipyard which has had difficulties delivering two ferries.

The Ferguson Marine yard is still working on the second of two ferries for CalMac – with the Glen Sannox and the Glen Rosa years late and massively overbudget.

Despite those difficulties, Kate Forbes announced the Port Glasgow shipyard could be handed a contract for four more vessels.

She said the new ships – two smaller ferries and two fishery support vessels – would be an “excellent fit” for the skills and capacity at the yard.

Speaking for the Scottish Government, she insisted: “We have confidence that Ferguson Marine will be able to complete these vessels.”

By giving the shipyard the contract, she said the Government – which took Ferguson Marine into public ownership in 2019 – could help achieve a “long-term sustainable position” for the site.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Breakfast programme on Wednesday, Ms Forbes said the Government wants to “sustain the future of Ferguson Marine”.

She added: “Directing the award for four vessels, which are an excellent fit with Ferguson Marine, is a really easy way to help bridge the gap between the Glen Rosa, which is due to be completed at the end of this year, and them securing more work on the open market.

“We don’t want the Scottish Government to be their only customer. This will give them enough work over five years to be able to look for additional work on the open market, modernise they yard and sustain the economic impact in the local community.”

However Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander told the same programme the Scottish Government had “lost hundreds of millions of pounds that should have been spent on frontline public services” by awarding the contract for the Glen Sannox and the Glen Rosa to Ferguson Marine.

Recalling how the Glen Sannox had initially been launched by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon to “great fanfare” despite having “its windows painted on”, the Labour MP added: “If the SNP want to showcase their commitment to ferry building as a sign of how they have done over the past 19 years, good luck to them.

“Because the fact is we have lost hundreds of millions of pounds that should have been spent on frontline public services by a Government acting in such a cack-handed and ill-judged way.

“You don’t need to look into the crystal ball in terms of what comes next, you just need to look at the record.

“They have wasted at an industrial scale hundreds of millions of pounds of our money – that would have been better spent improving standards in schools, in dealing with a housing emergency they recognise they have, or indeed on getting waiting times and waiting lists down.

“I think the Scottish people will pass a pretty brutal judgment on the incompetence of the Scottish National Party when it comes to ferries.”

Ms Forbes accepted the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa had “caused much frustration with being over-budget and taking too long”.

But she said with the first of these now completed and the Glen Rosa “moving towards completion”, the shipyard is “at an important point in its history”.

By delivering the four new vessels she said Ferguson Marine would be “able to demonstrate to the open market that they have got the capability, they have got the skills and restore confidence”.