A long way to go but the IFI will prove to be alot worse than RTE!
Recent Seanad Debate : -
My good friends in Inland Fisheries Ireland are before the Committee of Public Accounts today and I was watching them all morning. They have an awful tale of woe, upset and having been downtrodden, with people victimising them, and Lord save us, I feel so sorry for them. I wish I could attend myself but, unfortunately, we cannot just go in and attend the Committee of Public Accounts and I know the committee members are dealing with the organisation as best they can. I found it ironic to hear the CEO saying he had a good working relationship with the former board members. Five of them resigned---------but he had a good working relationship with them. I am not sure what it was. Everything is wrong except the executive, which is doing a tremendous job according to himself. There are no issues. He apologised for a number of issues which are on the public record there. I welcome any apologies but I just find the stuff I am hearing today from officials, both within Inland Fisheries Ireland and the Department, extraordinary.
My good friends in Inland Fisheries Ireland are before the Committee of Public Accounts today and I was watching them all morning. They have an awful tale of woe, upset and having been downtrodden, with people victimising them, and Lord save us, I feel so sorry for them. I wish I could attend myself but, unfortunately, we cannot just go in and attend the Committee of Public Accounts and I know the committee members are dealing with the organisation as best they can. I found it ironic to hear the CEO saying he had a good working relationship with the former board members. Five of them resigned---------but he had a good working relationship with them. I am not sure what it was. Everything is wrong except the executive, which is doing a tremendous job according to himself. There are no issues. He apologised for a number of issues which are on the public record there. I welcome any apologies but I just find the stuff I am hearing today from officials, both within Inland Fisheries Ireland and the Department, extraordinary.
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| Sean Kyne |
There are a series of issues. We know all that is going on in RTÉ, and Inland Fisheries Ireland is a much smaller organisation. It has a tale and catalogue of issues that are under investigation. Its members then attend the Committee of Public Accounts with a tale of woe where they claim they are being set upon and that bad things are being said about them by bad people and, I presume, by me and others. I am beginning to feel sorry for them and perhaps I need to pull back a little bit. There are a number of other things coming up, in any event, in the next number of weeks and perhaps we can resume a forensic analysis of issues within Inland Fisheries Ireland in the autumn if we are all still here.
I suggest Senator Kyne’s sympathies are probably misplaced. The Inland Fisheries Ireland saga has a long way to go but, to be fair to the people who are appearing in front of the Committee of Public Accounts this morning, I do not know anybody who does not bring their best game face when they come to sit in front of that committee. As the Senator has said, I believe there is a long way to go on this issue and we will watch with bated breath.
Senator Burke, coincidentally, probably because he was not in the Chamber at the time when she asked, asked for the same debate as Senator Boylan on power and energy generation and the future of it in Ireland. We will try to arrange that in September and as quickly as we can.
Senator Boyhan asked for an invitation to be extended to An Taoiseach. I am told that there is always an open invitation but that does not really materialise unless we push.
I suggest Senator Kyne’s sympathies are probably misplaced. The Inland Fisheries Ireland saga has a long way to go but, to be fair to the people who are appearing in front of the Committee of Public Accounts this morning, I do not know anybody who does not bring their best game face when they come to sit in front of that committee. As the Senator has said, I believe there is a long way to go on this issue and we will watch with bated breath.
Senator Burke, coincidentally, probably because he was not in the Chamber at the time when she asked, asked for the same debate as Senator Boylan on power and energy generation and the future of it in Ireland. We will try to arrange that in September and as quickly as we can.
Senator Boyhan asked for an invitation to be extended to An Taoiseach. I am told that there is always an open invitation but that does not really materialise unless we push.