Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

-----will be in a very difficult position because he has not been directly involved. He will certainly report back to me on what other Senators raise. Before I leave and hand over to the Minister of State, I will briefly respond to some of the points raised.

On Senator Kyne's comments, I thought our discussion on this in the Oireachtas committee was very useful and I am happy to follow on from that. However, I find myself in a position where I cannot really comment on the suggested reasons for any one board member leaving. It is a complex issue and quite a number resigned. I am reluctant to comment or engage in conjecture on the exact motive in each particular instance. As I have said, the board was removed on a no-fault basis. It is not my intention to question the motives of board members or anyone else.

On Senator Kyne's point regarding the change from regional fisheries offices to Inland Fisheries Ireland, I am going back in time now but, as I recall, cost was not the primary reason for that. It may have been a motive for some people but, to my mind, the reason for the establishment of the new authority was to get greater efficiencies, co-ordination, scale and expertise rather than to remove the boards as a cost-saving exercise. That was not the intention behind the original legislation.

With regard to the protected disclosures, I will commit to seeking to bring those to a conclusion within the six-month period, as I said in my opening comments. However, I will be honest again; I cannot possibly comment on the allegations the Senator made regarding an improper interview process or manipulation of that process. That is for Inland Fisheries Ireland and our Department to assess and manage. That will be done in a timely manner as part of the work we need to do on the review of corporate governance within the organisation.

Senator Boyhan listed a variety of matters that have been the subject of a lot of media commentary and some public commentary. I am reluctant to go into the details of these matters because part of the problem is that there has been a whirlpool of allegations of malpractice. As I have said, my job is to get a new board appointed and to manage the interim process in which the protected disclosures will be resolved and corporate governance reviewed. I did, as the Senator has said, look to make sure that was handled absolutely correctly in accordance with due process rather than presenting myself as judge and jury. I took a similar approach with regard to past board members. To answer the Senator's question, I was reluctant to appoint board members to a situation that was not functioning. That is why we appointed Conleth Bradley to carry out an assessment. We knew we had a problem and appointing people in such a non-functioning system would not necessarily have improved it. It would not have been fair to put any individual into a position when they might not be aware of the controversies raging within the organisation.

I absolutely accept what Senator Burke has said about us having had some of the best rivers and lakes for fishing but the reality and truth is that we have lost a lot of that.We have gone from 500 pristine river systems down to 20. That may be part of the reason that in some places, we have seen a fall-off in angling tourism. We need to rectify and restore that. Inland Fisheries Ireland has a critical role in that regard. It is the canary in the mine for the lack of high-quality waters for salmonoid, trout, salmon, pike and other species. There is a mechanism for us to restore the pristine environment we had within my lifetime and that of the Senator. I have memories as a child of fishing right across the country. Compared with how they were then, they are effectively dead, which is the cornerstone of our problem. Mr. Barry and Mr. Neely will work collectively as a board to deal with protected disclosures. Some will be managed from within our Department and some directly from within IFI.

I accept the Senator's point that the key thing now is to do that work and appoint a new board. The joint committee and Departments will have a role in that. The way the IFI board was designed gives significant responsibilities to the Oireachtas committee and Departments to reflect the fact that this organisation is critical and having diverse views and a different pool of applicants going through different processes was appropriate. It is important that we conclude the reviews I mentioned into protected disclosures and corporate governance. We will then quickly appoint a new board. I believe Mr. Neely and Mr. Barry are doing a good job. Their information to me is that they are dealing with a professional organisation that is functioning but we need to make sure a new board is appointed so that it can look to the future rather than to the unfortunate past over the past year or two.

Apologies, Chair. I will-----