Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I express my disappointment. It is the second time I have put down this matter and the Minister has failed to show up. I want to register that strongly. I really am annoyed. I have stuff I want to put on the record but I want the Minister to be here. I say that with respect to the House and the Minister of State who is here - it is no fault of his but he has no responsibility for fisheries or for that Department. All he will do, and I did it on many occasions, is read a prepared script.

There was a programme on UTV over the Christmas. It was "Mr. Bates vsThe Post Office". It was about semi-state companies and the state and what they did to postmasters in England. We have the case of Pat Gorman. He was a director of Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI. The way he has been treated by that agency is a disgrace. He gave 37 and a half years of his life. His father before him and his family gave everything to the inland fisheries. He was treated that way over a simple little thing, a tractor stored in his garage by agreement between the line manager and Mr. Gorman. There was an anonymous letter sent in stating the tractor was there and was being used by this man. This man was treated very badly. There is stuff I want to put on the record but I will not do it tonight. I will put this down for the adjournment again and hope somebody from the fisheries will come in.

It is shocking the way this man has been treated. He went to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, and won his case. The Department needs to be investigated, as does the IFI. An independent investigation needs to be carried out into all of this, given what the WRC said in its report about the line manager, the CEO and the Department. They lost the case. It was a disgrace the way this man was treated and the way the CEO came in with the line manager in front of all the staff and suspended him, and then eventually got rid of him. It is a scandal.

As a Fine Gael Member of this House, with a Fine Gael Taoiseach and a Fine Gael-led Government at the moment, I cannot allow this to happen. I cannot allow a decent, honourable man to have his and his family's reputation tarnished by a State board.

What really annoyed me was the action of the Minister the week the Dáil adjourned. What did he do? He appointed a new board. When the old board was investigating the CEO, he sacked it and got rid of it. The new board is in now and it has some can of worms to deal with. I hope the board's members are honourable, decent people and will deal with it.

I commend the Comptroller and Auditor General because he has already discovered what was happening in relation to expenses. I know the inland fisheries will come before the Committee of Public Accounts again and I know the Comptroller and Auditor General will deal with that. I am glad there is somebody there to watch the State agencies because what happened to this man and his family is a disgrace.

I am waiting to hear the prepared speech from the Minister of State and controlled officials in that Department. I know them. They are there for so long now they are part of the establishment and part of the furniture. It is not right. It is like I said before in this Dáil, when there is something wrong, the public service will unite and come together to kill the small man.

I ask the Leas-Cheann Comhairle to put this back on the adjournment again because I have stuff here I want to put on the record when the Minister is here. I would like to hear what the Minister of State has to say.

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