Mick Clifford: Our rivers are not the only places to have been polluted under the IFI
In the last week, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that there was 'poorly treated sewage from urban waster water treatment plants' as well as 'run-off nutrients, sediment and pesticides from agricultural lands and farmyards' in just under half of 4,000 water bodies monitored in the past five years. File photo
Is Ireland’s waterways regulator still fit for purpose?
Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) - a semi-state body - has a vital function, yet while pollution has seeped in far and wide across the waterways of the State, the IFI has been described variously by politicians as “halfway between Ballymagash and Killinaskully”, and in terms of its loose approach to public money, as “RTÉ without the celebrities”.
Ireland’s rivers and lakes are in an appalling state. In the last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that just over half of 4,000 water bodies monitored in the past five years achieved a satisfactory rating.
The remainder were contaminated with “run-off nutrients, sediment and pesticides from agricultural lands and farmyards”. There was also “poorly treated sewage from urban waster water treatment plants” as well as domestic facilities and contaminated water.
In short, there has been a complete disregard for the protection of rivers and lakes at a time when climate change is exercising its own downward pull on the natural environment.
The semi-state Inland Fisheries Ireland was formed in 2010 as an amalgamation of seven regional fisheries boards.
Its income of around €40m is provided primarily by the Department of the Environment. For instance in 2023, it had income of €40.49m, of which €33.43m came from government. In that year the total expenditure amounted to €41.23m.
Its remit has never been as vital. Between 1975 and 2022, the number of wild salmon inhabiting our lakes and rivers fell from 1.76 million to 171,700, a drop of almost 90%. IFI is responsible for protecting what’s there and attempts to restock.
The most recent, and by far the most egregious, fish kill of recent times occurred in the Blackwater river in north Cork in the summer. On August 11, dead fish were spotted along the banks near Mallow.
The IFI was alerted and pretty soon it became apparent that upwards of 40,000 fish had been rendered dead or injured. Initially, the IFI issued a statement suggesting that the fish kill was attributable to a fungal infection, but this position was soon reversed.
Most of the fish were found in and around Mallow but some were located as far away as Banteer, about 22km upstream and downstream as afar as Castletownroche, which is 17 km away.
The IFI was on the scene within an hour of being contacted. Pretty quickly it was the lead in a multi-agency investigation into the kill, which included the EPA, the marine institute and Cork County Council.
Despite an extensive investigation no definitive cause, or culprit was identified by the probe.The report compiled stated that “the pollutant or the source, that caused the fish mortalities has not been identified”.
Whatever caused the kill appears to have passed by the time the IFI was alerted. According to the report from the investigation: “It may be concluded that a waterborne irritant likely entered the river Blackwater around 5/6 August, around 72 hours before the first mortalities were observed on August 9, 2025.”
The location where the “irritant” entered the river was most likely “at an unidentified point most likely upstream of the uppermost limit of where Inland Fisheries Ireland observed mortalities (main channel between Gortmore and upstream of Roskeen Bridge August 13)”.
It was noted that the North Cork Creameries, which is located near the epicentre of the kill, had a record of breaching its environmental licence but was not identified as the source.
The whole affair was examined by the Oireachtas committee on Climate, Energy and Environment on September 30, where a procession of parliamentarians expressed themselves dissatisfied with the outcome.
Barry Fox, acting chief executive of IFI, pointed out that in about of a quarter of the fish kills identified it’s not possible to identify a source.
The meeting did bring into the light two aspects to the difficulties faced in attempting to police the rivers and lakes.
The first is how difficult it is to catch in the act some person or entity that is responsible for the pollution.
Fox told the meeting that the nature of the events are such that “unless we are on site while the discharge is occurring, we cannot possibly link it to an offender”.
There are instances where it just won’t be possible to identify not just the offender but where a polluting material entered the water.
“There are 1,200 rivers and over 4,000 lakes in Ireland,” he said. “We cannot be everywhere at once. This is reactionary. An event happens to which we have to react.”
The other issue that hampers the work of the IFI is the law. Prosecutions are taken at the district court.
When, as is often the case, the offender is a corporate entity, there is no deterrent built into the penalty.
“If you pollute in a river and are prosecuted by IFI, the average fines are between €1,500 and €5,000,” Fox told the committee members.
“The penalty does not fit the crime, really. We need to be looking at bringing all these cases where they are significant on indictment.”
He told the meeting that the IFI has been working on getting new laws drafted for the last seven years.
Some serious questions arise.
At a time when pollution is really devastating the waterways, when fish kills are more frequent, when stocks are depleting, why would it take seven years to get cracking on something so vital?
One answer may be that for a long stretch of that seven years, the IFI has been mired in serious controversy and maladministration that has had a major impact on its capacity to function.
Issues around expenses, credit card use, conflicts of interest, uninsured vehicles, all raised their heads.
Last year, the reported on a number of these issues as examined in a consultant’s report, which had been commissioned by the board of IFI.
Earlier this month, the Comptroller and Auditor General published his separate report into the various controversies. It makes for unsettling reading.
All of the matters which were examined pre-dated the appointment of Mr Fox to the role he now occupies and he was not implicated in the matters raised.
In terms of prosecuting polluters, there has been a major problem because staff were not properly sanctioned to do so. As a result over 50 prosecutions have had to be dropped.
These include separate cases taken over fish kills in Skibbereen and Bandon. Last year, the Public Accounts Committee was told that another major abandoned case involved the River Rye in Kildare.
Former Social Democrat TD Catherine Murphy said she was very familiar with that fish kill, as a large effort had been put into conserving and rejuvenating the river.
“Some 500 mortalities of wild stock trout and other fish species were noted,” she told the committee. “It will take years for the river to recover because of its wild stock.
"It is very difficult to build confidence for those people who put that effort into the river to ensure it is in pristine condition. The failure to prosecute here has enormous consequences in terms of people having confidence in the State.”
The total cost in public money of the invalidated and discontinued prosecutions has yet to be determined.
Through 2020 to 2023 a number of controversies dogged the IFI and during that period a succession of board members resigned.
In 2023, the minister for the environment, Eamon Ryan, invoked a “Section 18” power which allowed him to appoint members to run the board.
Then there was the case of the wandering CEO.
Francis O’Donnell occupied the office in November 2021 when he relocated from IFI’s HQ in Dublin to Ballyshannon, Co Donegal.
“The change was made without authorisation by the board, and there is no evidence of a business case having been prepared to support the change,” The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), Seamus McCarthy reported.
While in Donegal, Mr O’Donnell claimed subsistence payments of €7,972, of which €1,042 was repaid after the Section 18 appointees put a stop to the relocation.
The CEO was asked about this matter at a Public Accounts Committee meeting in 2023, which concluded with a resolve to explore further at a subsequent meeting.
Before that could be convened the committee was told that Mr O’Donnell was ill. Mr O’Donnell went on sick leave in 2024 and stepped down from his role in June of this year.
On his departure, IFI issued a statement saying it would “like to thank him for his work during his time with the organisation, and wish him the best for the future”.
Also uncovered by C&AG was the proliferation of credit cards among staff.
“In 2020, IFI made 53 credit cards available to its staff for use, who spent a combined total of over €148,000 on the cards,” McCarthy reported.
“By the end of 2024, IFI had reduced the number of credit cards down to 17. Notwithstanding the reduction it remains excessive for an organisation of IFI’s size.”
The body also appears to have been a great place to work for those who required funding for third-level courses.
The C&AG report notes that in June 2021 a staff member requested funding for a two year Masters in Business Administration (MBA).
The funding for an employee whose “role and grade at the time was not a management role within IFI”, came to €27,574, but the employee acquired sponsorship which reduced the cost to the IFI to €20,373.
This employee was lucky to get such a level of funding. Others not as much, but there was still plenty to go around, according to the report.
“IFI noted that while spending on third-level courses for employees between 2018 and 2023 totalled around €209,800 for 43 employees, no other employee within IFI has had fees paid for a similar third-level course.”
Further issues arose over uninsured vehicles, including one that was involved in a road traffic accident.
There was also a problem with the use of Dormant Account Funds, which were awarded to IFI but found not to have been used for the purposes it was intended.
Then there was Aasleagh Lodge, on the Mayo-Galway border near Lennane, a highly popular location for salmon fishing.
It was originally owned by Lord Mountbatten who was murdered by the IRA in 1979. Soon after that the State bought it and IFI took control of the facility in 2011.
Five years later there was a proposal to rent it out on a commercial basis as a tourist location. The lodge included two self-catering cottages. An outside contractor won the tender, but withdrew after a year in 2016.
“Subsequently, an arrangement was entered into with an IFI staff member to operate the cottages as tourism rentals on a profit-share basis. This arrangement continued to operate for five years, and was extended to include the lodge in 2021.”
In effect, a State-owned property was provided to a staff member of the State body which controlled it to rent out as a commercial venture.
“An internal audit review completed in January 2023 of the operation of Aasleagh Lodge and the cottages during the years 2014 to 2022 identified significant weaknesses in IFI’s procurement, contract management and financial management practices,” the comptroller reported.
“The deficiencies in control identified by internal audit exposed IFI to financial risk and may not have resulted in optimal value for money outcomes."
The Public Accounts Committee has now scheduled appearances by IFI for December to examine the C&AG's report. Answers will be required as to how corporate governance in a State agency could descend to the point which appears to have been the case here.
Public money is at issue. So also, though, is the state of our rivers and lakes. At a time when vigilance has never been as important, something was rotten in the body charged with keeping an eye on things.
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