An official report on complaints by a whistleblower into issues at a State fisheries agency was referred to the Garda Commissioner by the Department of Environment, records sent to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee show.
The documents indicate that the report on the protected disclosure found, in part, that Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) had knowingly allowed an individual to produce invalid insurance documentation to An Garda Síochána.
IFI chairman Tom Collins told the department in July last year that it “strongly contests” this conclusion of the report on the protected disclosure made by a staff member.
It is understood that the protected disclosure related to an incident in which a staff member was involved in a crash while driving a vehicle which had been leased by IFI.
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It subsequently emerged that this vehicle and more than a dozen others, operated by IFI, had not been included on the organisation’s insurance policy.
The documents provided to the Public Accounts Committee show that in February last year, the department had sent the report on the protected disclosure, drawn up by a company called RSM Ireland, to IFI.
Official minutes show the report was considered by the IFI board and its audit and risk committee in late February last year.
On March 4th, gardaí wrote to department secretary general Oonagh Buckley seeking clarification as to whether the RSM Ireland report had been sent to the commissioner as a complaint for the purpose of criminal investigation. If so, gardaí wanted details of a complainant to facilitate such a process.
On July 16th the department wrote to the IFI chairman saying it believed that he was “the appropriate person to respond to An Garda Síochána’s request”.
On July 22nd, Mr Collins told the department that while IFI accepted two findings in the RSM Ireland report, it “strongly contests finding three, which alleges that the organisation knowingly allowed an individual to produce invalid insurance documentation to An Garda Síochána”.
“IFI will of course co-operate fully with any Garda investigation,” he said.
“I cannot, however, provide the name of the complainant as the disclosure was submitted to DCEE [the Department of Climate, Environment and Energy] directly and IFI is not aware of the identity of the complainant.”
The fishing agency also told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee in December that IFI “refuted the position” that it had knowingly allowed an employee to present insurance to An Garda Síochána.
On Wednesday in the Dáil, Labour Party TD Eoghan Kenny, under privilege, maintained that some members of IFI management had misled the Public Accounts Committee in evidence provided in December.
He asked Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, who was standing for the Taoiseach during Dáil questions, as to whether he believed they should step down.
The fishing agency has faced controversies over recent years, with a number of external reviews and investigations conducted since 2021.
Members of the Public Accounts Committee have been investigating several issues involving the agency that were set out in a special report last October by the State’s main auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Mr O’Callaghan told the Dáil on Wednesday that the Government believes that the comptroller’s findings were “entirely unacceptable and it is appropriate that the IFI is subject to rigorous examination”.
The Irish Times reported, separately, on Wednesday that former IFI chief executive Francis O’Donnell had initiated proceedings against the organisation at the Workplace Relations Commission.
