Results 6,741-6,760 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: 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...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: For the last year or more there have been significant difficulties at IFI. I had appointed Mr. Conleth Bradley, SC, to look at issues of public concern within the board that had been raised in the media. It was more appropriate for that process to be concluded rather than replacing board members in the middle of it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: To be clear, In my actions here I am not accusing anyone of wrongdoing. We acted on that report and followed its recommendations. One recommendation was to not dissolve the board which was being considered at that time. Instead, it was recommended to give it the opportunity to try to resolve the various matters. Subsequent to that, a number of further resignations took place. Following...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: Clearly it was something that was worked on with the Government's colleagues. There was a number of weeks between that meeting and getting the Government decision to act in that way

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: I believe they received it in September.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: As I said, there was every prospect that the recommendations report could have been implemented in the subsequent months since then up to February this year. It became clear to me that was not going to be possible.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: As I said in my introductory statement, such were the difficulties by that stage that the board was not able to actually function. It was not having meetings.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: The Senator has made a number of accusations, which has been characteristic of this issue for the last year. There have been accusations and counter accusations of a personal nature. I am not engaging in that. I am trying to assess whether it could have been restored as a board with the appointment of new members. I came to the clear position that was not possible. In such circumstances,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: As I said, I had a significant meeting with the outgoing chair-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: No. To answer the Senator's second question, as I said in my opening statement, I have asked Mr. Barry and Mr. Neely to carry out an external review of governance within IFI. That, by definition, can and could include looking at the legislative provisions. That was not the difficulty here and I will not go into the long history, which others have already done in public and elsewhere....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: Part of the problem here is that there has been a lot of speculation and accusation. I am not accusing the Senator of doing that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: As he suggested, I do not want to continue with that. I do not want to impugn the motives of anyone who may have resigned previously. As to what their motives or reasons for departing are, some may have good reasons, personal or otherwise, in their daily lives. I am not impugning members of the board which we have dissolved. That would only add to what has been the problem here, namely, a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: I should declare an interest by mentioning that I was the Minister who introduced the legislation in the first place. IFI is a critical institution for protecting and benefiting the environment and anglers have a real interest in protecting the environment. I disagree with the characterisation that there is, on the one hand, an interest in protecting the environment and, on the other hand,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: I agree that we need to have what might be called an ecosystem approach. If one looks at any one element of the environment rather than the whole system, one will not get the best and optimal protection of the environment. This legislation is unusual compared with other legislation in that it gives the Oireachtas joint committee the power to appoint board members. Part of the reason for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: I have no sense of that, particularly in the last year and a half. We need to scale up IFI, which needs to be bigger. Being larger, it can and should have a role in habitat protection. We are about to initiate a significant phase 2 of a land use review and IFI has a critical role in that. A review of land use has to look at what is happening in our rivers and apply a river basin...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: We could broaden it out. I have often considered that issue. Could the National Parks and Wildlife Service be made separate and could Inland Fisheries Ireland be integrated in some way, with reconstituted forms of the various arms of the State's environmental protection? That could be debated but I do not think it is the core of the problem here. It is true what the Deputy said about...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: I met Mr. Barry and Mr. Neely yesterday in advance of this meeting and I was encouraged because they have hit the ground running. I have had a meeting of the board in situand a meeting with management, and there will be a further meeting later this week. In answering my questions, Mr. Barry and Mr. Neely said they had a sense that IFI was a professional functioning organisation, and while...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: The previous board was not, as I said, quorate and there was not a functional relationship between management and the remaining board members. That led to an environment where the board could not carry out its statutory functions effectively.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (7 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: I apologise but I do not understand the question.