Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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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.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Ring. Unfortunately, I will have to read him a prepared script. I know he has followed this issue hard and has stood up on this matter over a number of years. This is the second occasion a Minister of the Department has not been present, so I will bring it to the attention of the Minister on his behalf.

The matter of protected disclosures has been received in both the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and Inland Fisheries Ireland. It is important to state there are no investigations into any staff in IFI, including the CEO. However, the protected disclosures process itself may involve the appointment of investigators to carry out investigations on the disclosures. As the Deputy is aware, a number of protected disclosures have been made relating to Inland Fisheries Ireland to both the Department and to Inland Fisheries Ireland itself over the past 18 months or so. These disclosures are being examined in line with the protected disclosure policy and guidelines of the Department and the equivalent policy of Inland Fisheries Ireland, as appropriate.

Clearly, within both the Department and IFI, there are established processes in place to deal with and manage the consideration of confidential protected disclosures, and in the case of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications such disclosures are screened and managed by the protected disclosures unit in that Department. As many of these investigations are ongoing and confidential in nature, the Department is not in a position to comment on them except to state that it looks forward to their resolution in the near future. Any follow-up actions required on foot of the investigation of protected disclosures will be taken.

The Committee of Public Accounts was advised by Inland Fisheries Ireland on 6 July 2023 that alleged fraud was identified within Inland Fisheries Ireland in 2022 and this was subject to an investigation by An Garda Síochána. Inland Fisheries Ireland updated the Department that it understood this Garda investigation is ongoing and, in that context, it would not be appropriate to comment further on this particular matter.

On the broader matter of good governance within Inland Fisheries Ireland, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, requested the section 18 appointees, who stood in to perform the functions of the Inland Fisheries Ireland board from February 2023, to commission a review of the governance arrangements and operations of Inland Fisheries Ireland. EY was engaged to carry out this review, which included interviews with IFI staff, and the final report includes recommendations on how to address a number of important issues. This governance review was published in December 2023. The IFI chairman informed the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action last week that he is chairing a subgroup to address the EY governance report recommendations, and an implementation plan has been developed to give effect to these recommendations during the course of 2024.

As I said at the outset, I will bring the Deputy’s anger directly to the attention of the Minister.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Before Deputy Ring comes back in, I would urge some caution in identifying people who are not in the Chamber. I understand the Deputy's passion on the issue he is raising but I urge caution.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I did not name anybody.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I know that. I am thinking ahead.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I do not blame the Leas-Cheann Comhairle because I will be naming them and I will be making allegations I can stand over - every single one of them. One of them is that Mr. Gorman was treated differently from the CEO. When a disclosure was made to the Department, Mr. Gorman was suspended. Why was the CEO not suspended when allegations were made about him?

To be fair to Mr. Gorman, he did nothing wrong and he won his case at the Workplace Relations Commission and won a substantial amount of money. He will be going further and will go to the courts. Maybe when we get to the courts, we will actually find out the truth, as in the case of Mr. Bates and the Post Office in England. For 20 years, the public service, the Civil Service and all of them came together to do that to this man. It was wrong. I wish the Minister were here tonight because I want to put everything about this on the record of the Dáil. A good man's name has been damaged by somebody who should not have done it. This is a man who gave 37.5 years of good service to the State. It is wrong, and when somebody is wronged, that has to be put right.

I will not let this go. As for the excuse that it has gone to the Garda for investigation, the Minister of State and I know the Garda could spend the next ten years investigating that, and it will be investigating the CEO as well. I hope the Garda does that and quickly. He has already won his case at the Workplace Relations Commission, an independent body that has also made damning findings. It is a pity the Department did not put some of the damning findings into the script tonight.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Again, I can assure Deputy Ring that I will bring his concerns and the script of his remarks directly to the Minister's attention and ask him to follow it up with the Deputy.