Written answers

Tuesday, 17 February 2015

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Fishery Harbour Centres

Photo of Terence FlanaganTerence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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155. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on the implementation of the recommendations for fishery harbours in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report entitled Financial Management and Reporting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6677/15]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Comptroller and Auditor General published a Special Report on the Financial Management and Reporting for Fishery Harbour Centres on 8th July 2014. While the report noted that improvements had taken place with regard to the Financial Management arrangements at the Fishery Harbour Centres, it highlighted areas where further improvements could be achieved.

My Department has accepted the recommendations of the report and work is ongoing to implement them. In addition, my Department attended a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts on 16 October 2014, at which the report was examined.

My Department took responsibility for a number of marine functions, including the fishery harbour centres, on 19 October 2007. Since 2007, and prior to the production of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report, a number of reports have been produced by management in the relevant division of my Department and by my Department's internal audit unit, which precipitated a very significant programme of change that has been implemented in the fishery harbour centres in the intervening years. The sea fisheries administration division, based in Clonakilty, was reconfigured into four specialist units to target the specific areas of debt management, property management, operational management and capital development programmes.

Specific measures pursued by the property unit included the establishment of a detailed database of the property portfolio, the appointment, following tender, of an outsourced property valuation service to carry out legally required rent reviews and new valuations together with the establishment of a dedicated legal resource within the Office of the Chief State Solicitor working exclusively on property issues in the harbours.

On the financial management front, a new rates and charges order was introduced in 2012. The new order modernised the charging regime in the harbours and addressed some anomalies.

My Department resourced the dedicated debt recovery unit to address the increasing debt profile that had developed in the harbours. Income generated in the harbours increased by in excess of €1.2 million in 2013 compared with 2007, an increase of 30%. Importantly, the age profile of debt now suggests, in general, a preponderance of late payers rather than non-payers.

New systems and procedures were implemented to strengthen the cross-checking of invoicing for services in the harbours. Staffing resources, which had diminished to unsustainable levels, were addressed by the appointment of new harbour masters to vacant posts while also assigning at least one clerical support person to each harbour to assist the harbour master and provide a separation of financial roles in accordance with best practice.

Following the resourcing at harbour level, a significant change in the management structure of harbours was implemented. Following the restructuring, each harbour is now managed at local level by a Department engineer, who, working with the harbour master and staff in the harbour, is responsible for the operational and billing management and development of the harbour, while strategic management, debt recovery, audit and executive support are provided centrally to all the harbours from the marine unit in the National Seafood Centre, Clonakilty. A fishery harbour centre management committee of senior officials is responsible for integrated management on an ongoing basis.

My Department will continue to implement the recommendations of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report and will take all appropriate steps to build on the improved management structures and procedures at the Harbour Centres.

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