Commenting on today’s rural economy and connectivity committee at which it was revealed that two delayed CalMac ferries are "significantly less than half built”, £100m over budget and likely to be three years overdue, Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Mike Rumbles MSP said:

“This has been a catastrophic failure. For £110m we have got two half finished hulks and a lot of red faced officials.

“The Scottish Government need to come clean on what due diligence was done before a contract worth tens of millions was dished out.

“Right now there is no evidence that any lessons have been learned or that a nationalised shipyard will be run efficiently and effectively. This needs to be rapidly addressed.”