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Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: We have received apologies from Deputy Verona Murphy. All in attendance are very welcome. I remind everyone to ensure their mobile phones are on silent mode or switched off. I will explain some limitations to parliamentary privilege and the practice of the Houses as regards references the witnesses may make to other persons in their evidence. The evidence of witnesses physically present...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Mr. Seamus McCarthy: Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach. Inland Fisheries Ireland was established in 2010, amalgamating the previous regional fisheries boards with the Central Fisheries Board. Its remit is to protect, manage and conserve Ireland’s inland fisheries and sea-angling resources. IFI’s income in 2022 amounted to €40.4 million. This was up from...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Dr. Cathal Gallagher: Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh, and to the committee for the opportunity to appear before it today, and discuss the financial statements for 2022. We are pleased to be here to engage with the committee on our work, our challenges, and our new opportunities as we at Inland Fisheries Ireland look to a future with confidence. I am the deputy CEO at IFI and I am...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Mr. Barry Fox: Costs have not been awarded against us in the majority of cases. That is at the discretion of the judge. We have a figure to date for our legal fees in the 46 cases. It is sitting at €170,843.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Dr. Cathal Gallagher: No, it depends on which particular programme we are looking at. We work directly on the water framework directive and look at the fish populations that contribute to the status of water bodies. In this case, we have a rota of three years over which we test various water bodies. This is defined by the EPA to a large degree. For example, in 2022 we sampled 24 lakes,...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Dr. Cathal Gallagher: I do not have the exact figure because it changes but I can certainly look at it and come back. Other water sampling goes on. There is a broad range of different types of sampling. One of the latest programmes we have looks at the environmental parameters for climate change. We have a number of index catchments that look at various measures, including temperature...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Mr. Philip Nugent: Yes, we are satisfied with the level of data that is available at the moment and with the work that IFI has done in recent years, which Dr. Gallagher has just outlined. There is always room for improvement, particularly in an area where an environmental body is working because it is difficult to put a monetary value on the work they do. We are trying to ensure that we...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Ms Suzanne Campion: Yes. That was very efficient for the section 18 appointees who were on both the audit and risk committee and the board at the time but-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Dr. Cathal Gallagher: I have all the capacities of the CEO, except the power to vote at board meetings. I attend all of the board meetings and I contribute.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...it is a question for the board to answer or for Mr. Collins, as chairman, to answer, but I do not have Mr. Collins in front of me so I will move on. I want to go back to a line of questioning that I explored on the last occasion relating to the change of base from Citywest to Ballyshannon. We want to put a lot of this stuff behind us, but it was stated at the previous appearance that the...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Ms Suzanne Campion: I am taking it from, I suppose, what was said at the previous meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts by my colleague at the time. I have just the records that were supplied to the committee afterwards.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: It is a heavy load to lay at the door of Mr. Gorman when we have no written documentary evidence to prove that that decision was ever made by him. We have a statement from the previous head of HR.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Okay. In the time remaining, I want to have a look at the EY report. In his opening statement, Dr. Gallagher stated that he accepts all of the recommendations and that he is happy. I think it is a good piece of work. He is accepting all of the recommendations. Five of the detailed findings and recommendations, or five of the subheadings, from 2.1 to 2.5, inclusive, are to happen within...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Dr. Cathal Gallagher: I can go through the sub-ones or I can just give the Deputy an overall view to start with of where we are at. As the Deputy has heard, we have a board in position. We have had - I think it was five - meetings outlined already. As part of those meetings, we have had the SMT working together to deliver a structured approach to the board papers. We have had formal...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Dr. Cathal Gallagher: -----agendas in place. We have our audit and risk committee. That is in place. We have started a process of looking at our risk process development. We have a number of sub-committees that are meeting, some of which are strategic in nature. That is looking at the future of the organisation. We have discussions around the structure and structure of the...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: What of the strategic remit because some of the items identified in the IFI's own reporting are at variance with its statutory obligations?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Dr. Cathal Gallagher: We are looking at that. It is a broader discussion and some of that discussion is around the conversation we had earlier on about resourcing. It is about where we best spend the resources we have on which strategic area and trying to align the organisation so that we can deliver, and also looking at the new programmes, for instance, the barriers programme and how...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: I have no doubt that it is hard enough to get people to serve on boards as it is without bringing them before the Committee of Public Accounts. The organisation does great work. It is very valuable and it is very needed. Those are matters the organisation can discuss at the joint Oireachtas committee that covers that work. I suppose our job is to be in the nitty-gritty of the governance...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Ms Suzanne Campion: IFI is quite a small organisation. The uninsured vehicles at the time, the field services and facilities management fell under HR and it was appropriate that the HR would have answered on those particular queries. She also spoke about, obviously, the CEO's base. I am not sure what else - maybe numbers and staffing. She would have been involved in all of those.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Ms Suzanne Campion: Yes. Since we have restructured within IFI, my role now takes over corporate services with the exception of HR and ICT. I now have field services and facilities management, which, at that stage last year, I would not have been up to speed on.