Transcript of statement by First Minister Alex Salmond to Press conference, St Andrew's House, Edinburgh, on April 25, 2008.
I contacted both Unite and INEOS this morning and urged the resumption of negotiations. The only real solution to the current dispute is to do it by negotiation. It is going to have to be resolved at some point. That is the only real solution to avert damage to and inconvenience to people and economy of Scotland.
Supplies are flowing across the country, there are localised difficulties particularly on diesel and in that light BP are releasing from the substantial stocks they hold at Grangemouth the diesel which should help ease the supply problems in various localities.
It should also be noted that substantial quantities of both products, particularly diesel are in-bound from a variety of European destinations which will be arriving, which will be more than enough supply for next week in Scotland.
The Scottish Government Ministers, and staff throughout the public sector, are urged to behave responsibly in the current position to reduce our own fuel consumption by stopping avoidable journeys and to use public transport. This behaviour will be led by the Ministerial team. I have enjoyed walking around Edinburgh in the last couple of days.
I spoke to Secretary of State John Hutton about these and other matters this afternoon and we are in agreement. He is not invoking the emergency powers he holds in terms of distribution and in terms of rationing. People should bear that in mind in terms of how they respond - if he thought it was required to ration supplies that is what he would do.
In terms of Government emergency response, the response has been extremely effective. These issues have been dealt with extremely effectively.