Vice Chair of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s Transportation Committee, Councillor Donald John MacSween said;

“Today’s announcement by the Finance Minister John Swinney is hugely disappointing. To have come to the islands to tell us he was initiating a study into the merits of road equivalent tariff is, frankly, insulting.  For years the people of the Western Isles were told by the SNP that if they led the next Scottish administration, then RET would be introduced within a fortnight of  election. I can’t understand why the SNP need to have a pilot study into a policy they have been promoting for years. If they genuinely believe in RET, today’s announcement should have been about a commencement date – not woolly rhetoric about a study. 

I would now strongly urge the SNP Executive to immediately introduce the 40% ferry discount for all Scottish islanders, as pledged and budgeted for by the former first minister, Jack McConnell. The previous Executive introduced the excellent Air Discount Scheme and its benefits are all too obvious. The SNP should waste no more time on studies; all the necessary studies and research has already been done by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, indeed these studies have been on the Ministers desk for some time.

The Western Isles need Action, not announcements.