John, where's the money gone? Islands owed another £7 million

John Swinney owes the £7 million in compensation for the ferry fiasco which continues to blight businesses the length of the Western Isles.

The SNP First Minister has fallen short of his £10 million election promise to support for islands affected by his government’s catastrophic handing of the CalMac ferry crisis.

I commented on the reopening of the Island Business Resilience Fund with only £3 million committed this year, saying, the islands had been “sold short”.

Made within a hair’s breadth of their fluctuating 100-day deadline, Scottish Government’s announcement of less that a third of the promised funds for beleaguered island businesses which have to bear massive losses is selling us short.

Across the Western Isles, in Uist and Barra and in Harris and Lewis, business losses have been mounting up. We have seen visitor numbers drop by thousands and business takings crash by as much as 70 per cent when the ferries don’t run to the mainland or between islands.

I have called for the Resilience Fund to be paid in full this year and for businesses like bakers, food suppliers and contractors in Lewis, which have also been affected, to be eligible for support.

Even for those who can meet strict eligibility criteria, these funds don’t touch the sides of losses. For many others business who have paid the financial and reputational cost of continued disruption, there has been no help at all.

Too many of my constituents have missed out on help. I have asked the Scottish Government and will ask again: widen the eligibility, deepen the offer, and speed up the process.

Delivering less than a third of what has been promised has become the modus operandi for a government that has turned its back on island communities.