Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Happy St. Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, it is not exactly an issue relevant to St. Valentine's that I have to report. Nonetheless, he has gone and done it. He has dismissed the board of Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has completed the work of the Department and the chief executive officer from last spring, targeting the board and finally getting rid of it. There will be celebrations in IFI headquarters in City West today, and in the Department headquarters in Adelaide Road. The house, it seems, always wins. The victims are the ordinary board members, vilified by the decision, despite being cleared by the very investigation by Conleth Bradley SC arranged under section 18 of the Inland Fisheries Act 2010. However, the Minister was not so interested in section 19 of the Act, and failed to appoint new members to the board following three resignations in 2022 and a further two in January this year. Why did the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the Department run the board down? It seems to have been a deliberate move by the Department, with a Minister oblivious to the goings on. There is an internal Department investigation by solicitors McCann Fitzgerald into complaints made by me and others against the chief executive officer of Inland Fisheries Ireland. What are its terms of reference? Who will they interview? Why is it an internal investigation only? The latest in the long-running saga includes the failure of the board to sign off on IFI accounts for 2022, for which the Comptroller and Auditor General is looking. This is not surprising considering there is no Chair, and only three ordinary members left to do so.There is a difference of agreement in relation to allegations of financial concerns and, indeed, in relation to a 60 page late-evening amendment to the statement of internal control, to cover up all the allegations being made under the protected disclosures, so the Minister sacks the board. Capital spending that was not sanctioned by the board twice late last year of over €140,000 was for work that is now proceeding. The money has been spent, despite a requirement that the board would have to sanction anything over €50,000, so the Minister sacks the board.

Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI, is being run as a fiefdom by the chief executive officer. The board was hamstrung by the failure of the Minister, Deputy Ryan, to replace members who had resigned. Consequently, there is no oversight of the chief executive officer. Minutes were not signed off on, where the legal strategy was agreed by the then board. I hope these minutes survive the shredder of Inland Fisheries Ireland over the coming days. It will be interesting to see what they show, what was agreed and what is going to happen, and that the CEO was going to be suspended. Instead, the interim chair resigned, with a glowing tribute from the CEO. IFI, injustice fraud and incompetence-----