‘Stronger internal checks’ in place at Inland Fisheries Ireland after 50 cases dropped

Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) has said it can “provide assurance” that a situation which saw it drop 50 legal cases at a cost of roughly €200,000 will not be repeated.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will hear from IFI on Thursday for the first time since the publication of a highly critical special report by the Comptroller and Auditor General into a series of large-scale governance failures.

The report found a litany of failures, including dozens of credit cards being given to employees and an uninsured vehicle owned by IFI which was involved in an accident leading to a €230,000 repair bill.

It described a situation which saw “significant weaknesses” and “deficiencies in internal control” in describing multiple governance failures.

Deputy chief executive of IFI Barry Fox is set to tell the PAC those failures are a thing of the past. 

Mr Fox will say the organisation understands “the importance” of addressing the issues raised by the report last summer “comprehensively and transparently”. 

He is expected to tell the PAC that IFI’s new board has been “central to driving organisational renewal”.

IFI’s previous board was removed in February 2023 by then environment minister Eamon Ryan as a quorum could not be reached to make decisions given the unexpected resignations of several members.

“Updated procedures, revised governance documentation, and clearer reporting lines are now firmly in place, supporting robust, transparent, and accountable decision-making,” Mr Fox will say.

He will also say that the withdrawal of 50 prosecutions taken by IFI between 2018 and 2023 — due to their having been taken without the appropriate approval — had “underscored the need for consistent adherence to governance, oversight, and stronger internal checks”.

“The organisation took decisive action to resolve this issue; I can provide assurance to the committee that these processes are now in place,” he will say.

He will say the organisation has received board approval to sell Aasleagh Cottages in rural Mayo, a €1.25m property which had been leased from 2017 to a former employee of IFI in an arrangement described as a “mistake” by ex-CEO Francis O’Donnell in 2022.

The adjoining Victorian-era house, Aasleagh Lodge, will be upgraded and repurposed as “an international research hub” for the national salmonid index, and as a training and education centre, a course of action which will serve to deliver “enhanced public value”, Mr Fox will tell the committee.