A new external review of the fisheries agency Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), which is currently under close scrutiny by the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, is to be carried out.
Minister for the Environment Darragh O’Brien said the examination would take place after a new chief executive was appointed.
Members of the Public Accounts Committee are also investigating a number of issues involving IFI which were set out in a special report by the Comptroller and Auditor General in October. Committee members have also criticised management at the agency over evidence provided at a hearing earlier this month.
The committee is expected to recall IFI to answer additional questions in the new year. It follows a PAC meeting earlier this month where chairman John Brady said he had “seldom seen an organisation so ill prepared for an appearance in front of the Public Accounts Committee”.
RM Block
IFI has faced a number of controversies over recent years with a number of external reviews and investigations carried out since 2021.
Mr O’Brien said in an answer to a parliamentary question that the then government in May 2022 appointed a senior counsel to carry out an independent review of the organisation.
He said in February 2023 former environment minister Eamon Ryan directed that a review of governance at IFI be conducted by statutory governors he had appointed to carry out the functions of the agency, pending the establishment of a new board.
Mr O’Brien told the Labour Party’s Eoghan Kenny that between 2021 and 2025 (to date), his department had initiated seven investigations by independent external investigators into protected disclosures relating to IFI.
The Minister said six of these investigations were completed and one was still in progress.
Mr O’Brien said the current Programme for Government included a commitment to carry out an independent review of IFI.
“While no specific time frame is attached to this commitment, I have written to the chair of IFI notifying him of my intention to commence this review once a new chief executive officer has been appointed and has been embedded in the agency. This review will be carried out externally”, he said.
Following the appearance of IFI before the Public Accounts Committee in early December, its chairman Mr Brady of Sinn Féin said the agency “did not inspire confidence with regard to the programme of reform that it has entered into following the breakdown of governance in 2021-2023, which resulted in the board being unable to act, and replaced by statutory governors”.
“Their drip feeding of information throughout the course of the hearing was absolutely extraordinary”, he said.
“As a result of my questioning, the IFI executive revealed that the former CEO, who went on leave in March 2024, was on full pay until June 2024. This was then reduced to half pay for a period of three months, but bizarrely, full pay was reinstated from September 2024 to June 2025 until the former CEO officially exited the organisation,” Mr Brady said.
“The rationale for this arrangement could not be explained.”
“Serious issues were also raised regarding uninsured vehicles that were in use by the IFI, with a particular focus on an employee that was involved in a collision in an uninsured IFI vehicle in Donegal in August 2021.
“Big questions remain with regard to this case – whether inaccurate insurance documentation was provided to the staff member and An Garda Síochána, and when they ultimately informed both that the car was uninsured”, he said.
