Fahey defends role in Lost at Sea scheme

FORMER Marine Minister Frank Fahey insisted he was “never dishonest” and has no regrets over his handling of a scheme to compensate fishermen for lost vessels which the opposition said was “rigged” to suit his constituents.

Mr Fahey was reacting to claims by a Fine Gael TD who claimed that even a ministerial colleague of Mr Fahey believed the Lost at Sea scheme, set up in 2001, was designed to suit two fishermen in Mr Fahey’s constituency of Galway West.

Kerry South TD Tom Sheahan said: “It was said to me privately by a minister that was in Cabinet at the time that the Lost at Sea scheme was an excellent scheme, but Fahey hijacked it for two of his own.”

Mr Fahey hit back at Mr Sheahan, accusing him of abusing parliamentary legal privilege by making these claims at yesterday’s Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture.

“If you want to name a ministerial colleague who said what you said, say it outside the House and I’ll deal with it,” Mr Fahey said.

Sinn Féin’s Martin Ferris, said former Fianna Fáil minister Jim McDaid had said the scheme “stank to hell”.

The committee was questioning Mr Fahey on the Ombudsman’s report on the Lost at Sea scheme which found its design was “contrary to fair and sound administration”.

The report was carried out on foot of a complaint from the family of Francis Byrne who, along with his son, was lost off the Donegal coast in 1981. The family were not compensated.