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I take the point—and I apologise for my answer being more about performance in general. I will hand over to my colleague Alison Irvine to say anything that she can about your local situation or the pursuit of a return to pre-pandemic levels in general. I point again, however, to the assessment that has had to be made and the objective of retaining a high-performing, safe and efficient rail network, and the importance—unfortunately—of the rail fare increases in that regard.

I will bring in Alison.

I cannot confirm that, no. I can confirm that an allowance is made in the ferries budget for potential vessel contracts in 2024-25, but, as always, that will be subject to procurement, relevant statutory approvals and business cases, which are still being considered.

No, I understand. First, I would say that it is one harbour. We are talking in the singular when we talk about Ardrossan. Alison Irvine’s clarification about the Glen Sannox operating from Troon is helpful.

The only thing that I can do is never allow us to minimise the complexity of the issues. The fact that we needed to re-examine the business case for Ardrossan and, when we did that, found that that piece of work needed to be expanded speaks to that complexity and the number of actors that are involved, as Alison Irvine described. From my perspective—from a political, cabinet secretary point of view—I am very keen, as ever, that progress is made on all that as quickly as possible.

It is perfectly understandable that you should ask that, and we keep a close eye on it. The local authorities that were unable to have their strategy published by December cited delays in recruiting staff, the need to undertake meaningful engagement with the local community—as we would expect in a project like this—and the capacity of specialist consultants whom they relied on to produce the strategies. Among local authorities, there has been a disparity in access and ability to manage those things.

However, as Kersti Berge said, 11 have been done, and the rest are expected in the coming months.

Absolutely. I am smiling slightly, Mr Macpherson , because I am considering how you and I are drawing on our commercial legal practice and training in all this.

On the one hand, I recognise how important—vital, in fact—the heat in buildings programme is to decarbonising and how vital that mission alone is. On the other hand, it must be realistic, affordable, pragmatic and capable of reflecting the varieties of our housing stock. Tenemental properties are an important aspect of that, although our rural properties will require a huge amount more to be made energy efficient than relatively newer properties.

I want to give you a guarantee that, despite the importance of the work and despite the fact that it has to happen across the board, I am determined that there will be a recognition of the different challenges that we will face across different types of housing.

It is a 7 per cent increase on 2023-24, and I am pleased to note that it is an increase for the second consecutive year.

I should also put on the record that, as I am stressing the increase in funding to the environment bodies in my portfolio, I have expectations of public sector reform in respect of them both. I think that SEPA’s digital transformation is a response to the need for that and a recovery from the cyberattack.

I expect the increase to be used principally on the two core functions of SEPA—environmental regulation and flood risk management.

As with all public bodies, I do not give my view on enforcement decisions, but I set out my expectations for delivery. As I said, the first and foremost role of environmental regulation and the fullest application of that, along with flood risk management, are the two priorities that I stress.

That is a perfectly reasonable question. You are right that the Minister for Transport intends to publish that review shortly. It is a broad document, and there are some recommendations within it that will take a number of years to complete. To the extent that budget is required this year to take them forward, I will look to provide that, and there will be budget required in future years for some interventions, should they be agreed.

I appreciate that, convener. I do not want to take up any more time than is necessary, but this is about an inaccuracy in the published budget, which I would prefer to bring to the committee’s attention.

That is a really accurate observation. Ms Gougeon, the DFM and I have talked about the financial landscape being singularly the most challenging one in the devolution era. We all know that my climate change task requires everything to be done everywhere right across the piece. When there are financial challenges across the piece, that is, of course, a concern for me, because many interventions are needed to deliver on climate change.

I am not going to take the opportunity to theorise on Ms Gougeon’s budget. However, you are absolutely right that there are implications for me, particularly in this year, as we develop the climate change plan. I will have to consider the development of that plan in light of one year’s budget, but also remember that it is a plan to 2040—it is a generational plan. I have to be realistic about what is affordable and doable in the next year and in the coming years. Equally, I do not want us, in a plan that goes right out to 2040, to be utterly restrained by the financial circumstances that we face just now.

One theme right across the piece that needs to be, and is being, explored in order to allow us not to be affected detrimentally is the leveraging in of responsible private finance. We see that in some of the nature work that Ms Gougeon and Ms Slater are overseeing. That is a theme in what I am trying to do in decarbonising transport.

We now need to realise that we must make progress on climate change but, equally, we must realise that scarce public funds will have to be utilised where they are most required, so we will have to seek to leverage in responsible private finance, both individual and institutional. We can come back to that.