Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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I know. The Deputy has the committee's support for that one.

The next category is correspondence from and related to private individuals and any other correspondence. No. R2085 C, from Mr. Fintan Gorman, former chairperson of Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI, dated 21 July 2023. Mr. Gorman contests certain statements made at the meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts of 6 July 2023 at which the 2021 financial statements of IFI were examined. Mr. Gorman was not present at that meeting and so had no opportunity to respond to any statements made. Therefore, I will read a summary of Mr. Gorman’s concerns into the record. However, it is important to note that this committee is not an adjudicative body and does not have the power to resolve conflicts in evidence presented to it. In his correspondence, Mr. Gorman states that he was "distressed and absolutely appalled by the inaccuracy of answers provided by IFI to several of the matters of concern raised by the members of the Committee". He also states that "a number of inaccuracies relating to me personally are particularly distressing and damaging to my reputation and it is these that I am writing to you to have redressed as a matter of priority". Mr. Gorman contests statements made at the meeting of 6 July that he, as chair of the IFI board, approved the CEO’s change of base from Citywest to Ballyshannon in November 2021. He states that he did not agree the change and had no authority to do so without bringing the matter to the board for its approval as the contract was between the CEO and the board of IFI. In his correspondence, he says:

I categorically state here that the first I heard of this change of base was when I viewed the proceedings at the PAC on July 6th. And for the further avoidance of doubt, nobody in IFI ever mentioned or discussed the change of base with me and no document relating to this matter was ever presented to me.

Mr. Gorman acknowledges that he did sign off on the CEO’s expenses after his base changed to Ballyshannon. He states that he was negligent in not checking the claims more thoroughly and not noticing the change of base and goes on to say that it was an inexcusable lack of vigilance on his part for which he takes full responsibility.

Does any member wish to address this item of correspondence? I will bring to committee members' attention that the Comptroller and Auditor General will be publishing a special report with regard to Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI. We as a committee reserve the right to engage again with officials from that organisation but also to engage with Mr. Gorman at a point in our further examination of that special report when the Comptroller and Auditor General has it prepared. We can at that point engage with Mr. Gorman to give him an opportunity if he wishes to appear before the committee. I want to put that on the record because in fairness to him, he wrote to us very soon after. He was not present; he contests the evidence given and the statements made by some of the witnesses from IFI. As Chairman of the committee, I am happy to read those corrections into the record to provide proper balance here. Does any member wish to address that?