Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I express my sympathies to the families of John Keenan Sammon, Wojciech Panek and Christy Stokes who died tragically at the weekend in Galway when their car entered the water in the River Corrib at Menlo Pier. My thoughts are with their families and friends at this difficult time. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha dílse.

Yesterday the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, dismissed the board of Inland Fisheries Ireland and in his proclamation given under his hand on St. Valentine's Day, 14 February 2023, he stated a number of things. He gave the background, which is fine. He pointed out that the number of members of Inland Fisheries Ireland had significantly reduced given a number of recent resignations from the board and that as the required quorum of five members for a meeting pursuant to section 25 of the Inland Fisheries Act 2010 cannot be attained, Inland Fisheries Ireland is as a consequence unable to act.

The Minister failed to state that the reason there are not enough members is because he failed to appoint people in place of those who had resigned. Is the Minister actually blaming the members who are present and who are turning up for meetings that there are not enough of them? There was a resignation on 28 April 2022, another on 30 April 2022 and another in October 2022. None of those members was replaced by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. Part of the reason for disbanding the board is that there are not enough members because the Minister did not appoint enough members.

The Minister also stated that Inland Fisheries Ireland has not implemented the recommendations of the report dated 12 July 2022 of Mr. Conleth Bradley, SC, submitted pursuant to section 18(3) of the Inland Fisheries Act 2010. An impartial observer might regard that as valid - 12 July 2022 is a long time ago and one would think they would have done something since then. Of course, in referring to that misleading date, the Minister does not say that the report from Mr. Conleth Bradley did not actually go to the chairman of Inland Fisheries Ireland until 26 September 2022 and was not given to board members until 9 November last year. An absolutely misleading date has been put in there, I will not say on purpose by the Minister, but on purpose by departmental officials advising him. That date should not be stated as 12 July when the report was only given to the board members on 9 November not 12 July. Therefore, they had a much shorter period to deal with this.

There are serious questions as to why exactly the Minister disbanded the board. I know he will not do it because the Deputy Leader has previously asked for the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to come in here and discuss Inland Fisheries Ireland. I know this is a small part of his very important brief, but he might show it a bit of consideration and come in here for statements on matters relating to Inland Fisheries Ireland.