Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 7 March 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. I am pleased to have this opportunity to come before the committee and address the matters raised regarding Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI. I am keen to assist the committee in further understanding recent events. As the committee will be aware, there have been a number of resignations from the board of IFI, including two chairpersons in the period from April 2022.

The required quorum for a meeting pursuant to section 20(5) of the Inland Fisheries Act 2010 is five members. However, following the resignation of two board members in January, including the then chair, a quorum could not be obtained and IFI was, as a consequence, unable to carry out its key statutory functions set out under section 7 of the Inland Fisheries Act 2010.

Taking account of this, I decided on 14 February 2023 to exercise my powers, as Minister, under section 18 of the Inland Fisheries Act 2010 and removed the members of IFI on a no-fault basis. Where a Minister decides to remove the board of IFI it is open to the Minister, under section 18(5) to appoint a person or persons to carry out the functions of the board.

In that regard, I appointed two retired senior public servants, Mr. Tom Barry and Mr. Seamus Neely, on 14 February to carry out the functions of the board for a 6 month period, pending the appointment of a new board via the appointments process set out under the section 12 of the Inland Fisheries Act 2010 with the support of the Public Appointments Service.

In making the appointments under section 18(5) and in addition to carrying out the core statutory functions of IFI, I directed Mr. Barry and Mr. Neely to give particular priority to ensuring that all protected disclosures on hand in IFI, which could not be progressed in the absence of a working quorum, are dealt with promptly and in accordance with IFI’s protected disclosures policies and the provisions of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014.

I also asked them to give priority to carrying out an external review of governance within IFI, including an examination of the respective roles of the IFI board and executive. The review will be completed within six months and will include an implementation plan, delivery of which will be overseen by a new board.

My Department has been engaging with the Public Appointments Service to expedite the process of appointing a full new board. The committee has a clear statutory role in that process and I am aware that my officials have provided a briefing to the subgroup of the committee recently. They followed up on this last week in writing and with an updated briefing, following our engagement with PAS, with the clerk to the committee and the adviser, to facilitate updates to the committee members in the context of its wishes regarding the process it may initiate.

I trust this has been of assistance and I am happy to answer questions committee members may have.

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