Fianna Fáil TDs block Lost at Sea report probe

FIANNA FÁIL deputies have blocked attempts to call the Ombudsman before an Oireachtas Committee for an investigation into her report on the controversial Lost at Sea scheme.

Last year the Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, took the unusual step of laying her report on the compensation package for fishing vessels before the Oireachtas. And she has been at loggerheads with the Department of Agriculture over its findings.

Ms O’Reilly recommended €245,000 be paid in compensation to a Donegal family, because the scheme was not administered properly.

Yesterday a jointly backed motion from Fine Gael and the Labour Party to investigate the scheme through the Committee was voted down by its Fianna Fáil majority.

This came a day after Taoiseach Brian Cowen ruled out reopening the matter in the Dáil, when he said it was up to the committee to decide whether it should investigate it.

Labour agriculture spokesman Sean Sherlock said the Opposition was committed to getting Ms O’Reilly’s report aired fully in the Oireachtas. He said for the Government, and the Department of Agriculture, to trample on the report and reject her findings was a threat to the office of the Ombudsman.

“This will have ramifications for every report the Ombudsman produces which the Government doesn’t like. It will have serious permutations for every citizen,” he said.

The Labour Party has now put a motion on the order paper of the Dáil which will require every deputy to vote on calling the Ombudsman before the Oireachtas Committee.