{"id":297119,"date":"2026-01-22T05:53:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T05:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/297119\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T05:53:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T05:53:19","slug":"former-inland-fisheries-ireland-chief-begins-case-at-workplace-relations-commission-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/297119\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Inland Fisheries Ireland chief begins case at Workplace Relations Commission \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former chief executive of the State agency charged with managing the country\u2019s inland fisheries and sea angling resources has initiated proceedings against the organisation.<\/p>\n

The Irish Times understands that Francis O\u2019Donnell has filed complaints against Inland Fisheries Ireland<\/a> (IFI) at the Workplace Relations Commission<\/a> (WRC). The nature of the issues raised by Mr O\u2019Donnell are not known.<\/p>\n

Contacted on Tuesday, Mr O\u2019Donnell declined to comment.<\/p>\n

In early December the D\u00e1il Public Accounts Committee<\/a> (Pac) was told by current IFI management that the former chief executive had left the organisation last June but had been on leave since March, 2024.<\/p>\n

The committee subsequently sought further details from IFI about employment and payment details regarding the former chief executive.<\/p>\n

In December Pac chairman John Brady told the agency\u2019s parent department that it had \u201csignificant concerns\u201d about governance within IFI.<\/p>\n

In a letter to Oonagh Buckley<\/a>, secretary general at the Department of the Environment, he said \u201cthese issues have been ongoing within the IFI for a number of years\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Brady, of Sinn F\u00e9in, said that, \u201cconsequently\u201d, the State agency was required to appear before the D\u00e1il committee in 2023, 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

He told Ms Buckley the committee was seeking a note \u201cdetailing at what stage does a minister or the department intervene when governance issues arise within an organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Irish Times previously reported in December that the Government had decided on a new external examination of the fisheries agency. Minister for the Environment Darragh O\u2019Brien<\/a> said the examination would take place after a new chief executive was appointed.<\/p>\n

The agency has faced controversies over recent years, with a number of external reviews and investigations conducted since 2021.<\/p>\n

Pac members have been investigating a number of issues involving the agency that were set out in a special report last October by the State\u2019s main auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General. <\/p>\n

Committee members criticised the agency\u2019s current management over evidence provided at a hearing in December.<\/p>\n

After that meeting, Timmy Dooley, Minister for State with responsibilities for fisheries, told the agency\u2019s chairman Tom Collins in a letter that \u201ca number of items\u201d raised at the hearing had not been fully addressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is understandable that Pac members continue to have legitimate questions, which will require further responses and\/or clarifications.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is understood that Mr Collins told the Minister before Christmas that the IFI had had a lengthy discussion about the Pac meeting and that the board would ensure outstanding questions on the operation of the agency would be answered comprehensively. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former chief executive of the State agency charged with managing the country\u2019s inland fisheries and sea angling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,2914,18,19,9762,17,17419,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-297119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-darragh-o-brien","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-inland-fisheries-ireland","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-public-accounts-committee","15":"tag-workplace-relations-commission"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115937201539370015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}