Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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On 5 May last year, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, appointed Conleth Bradley SC under section 18 of the Inland Fisheries Act 2010, which relates to the removal of members from office, those members being members of the board of Inland Fisheries Ireland, to carry out a review of the exercise by the board of its functions under the Act. Mr. Bradley's report was received by the Minister on 27 July. The report was considered by the Department and was issued to the chair of IFI on 26 September 2022. The accompanying letter communicated the Minister's expectation that IFI would give full effect to all the recommendations set out in the report and revert to the Department by the end of October with an update on the implementation process. That report was discussed at a meeting between the board and officials of the Department on 26 October 2022 and at the meeting it was agreed that the review was warranted. All the recommendations therein were accepted by the board at that time and it was agreed that the board would implement them. The primary focus of the Minister, the board and the departmental officials was to implement the recommendations and work in close collaboration with the executive and board of IFI for the benefit of the entire inland fisheries resource. The report was published on 7 November 2022 but, regrettably, it has not been possible to build on the recommendations made in the report because of the challenges brought about by the board resignations in the interim period since the review was carried out.

There have been a series of protected disclosures and complaints to the Garda. There is a formal process for investigating protected disclosures and there are of course criminal investigations. It is difficult for me to comment on the likely outcome of any of these investigations without subverting natural justice.