Lost at Sea hearing - An inquiry is essential

IT is to be hoped that Environment Minister John Gormley’s intervention into the controversy surrounding the Lost At Sea scheme will prevent the simmering issue becoming a scandal.

He has supported calls that Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly’s report into the scheme, set up by Frank Fahey when he was a junior minister, to be given full consideration by an Oireachtas Committee.

The Agriculture Committee, voting on party lines, has already voted down a Fine Gael attempt to have a full hearing on the report.

Some of the allegations, and the implications that follow, surrounding this scheme cannot go untested. Let us hope Mr Gormley insists there is a proper inquiry.