Transport Secretary Stephen Flynn has admitted it took an “obscene amount of time” to build two new CalMac ferries – as he pledged a major overhaul of the ageing fleet serving the Western Isles and described current service provision as "insufficient".

Mr Flynn made the admission while speaking at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where he acknowledged the frustration felt by islanders who have endured years of ferry disruption.

The MV Glen Sannox and sister vessel MV Glen Rosa were ordered in 2015 from Ferguson Marine on the Clyde, with the pair originally expected to cost £97 million.

However, the final bill is now expected to be more than three times that figure.

The Glen Sannox was eventually delivered around six-and-a-half years late, while the Glen Rosa is not expected to enter service until the final quarter of this year – more than eight years after the original order.

Mr Flynn said the two vessels represented “two specific examples” of projects which had taken far too long.

“There’s no getting away from the fact that the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa took an obscene amount of time,” he said.

But the Transport Secretary insisted that the Scottish Government was now making “huge investment” in the CalMac fleet, with a third of the operator’s vessels set to be replaced when a programme of new ferries is completed.

Mr Flynn confirmed news about new ferry provision – also announced by the First Minister on his visit to the Western Isles earlier this month – stating that the second of four ferries being built at the Cemre shipyard in Turkey was also nearing completion, with two further vessels to follow.

The Scottish Government has also committed to seven smaller vessels as part of its programme to modernise the fleet.“We will be delivering that in a very short period of time,” Mr Flynn said. “A third of the fleet is going to be brand new, which means you are not going to have so many ships breaking down, which will completely change the landscape.”

The Transport Secretary also acknowledged the current problems facing island communities. He said there “wasn’t a sufficient service for folk who just wanted to get from A to B on the ferry network”.

Mr Flynn revealed that one of his first visits after becoming Transport Secretary in May was to the Western Isles, where he met islanders to hear directly about the problems they face.

“I wanted to go there and hear from them directly because I am not afraid of difficult discussions,” he said.
“I think they valued that.”