Inland and Marine Fisheries: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-04
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Sarah O'Reilly (AON), Agricultural Panel

I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House today. At the moment there is a lot of frustration with Inland Fisheries Ireland because of its governance issues and the level of habitat destruction we are seeing in our lakes and rivers. Recent audits and scrutiny have revealed financial and governance failures in Inland Fisheries Ireland. For example, there were 52 staff credit cards in 2020 that totalled over €148,000 in spending. That figure has reduced somewhat in recent years but it is still excessive for an organisation of IFI's size. A fleet of IFI vehicles was found to have 15 hired vehicles that were uninsured in 2021 and when one of those was involved in a crash, it cost the taxpayer €230,000, all because of a failure to insure the vehicles. More than two dozen whistleblower complaints have been made in recent years, leading to external investigations and deep concern among staff and stakeholders alike. In some cases prosecutions against polluters were dropped due to basic administrative failures. That is totally unacceptable and should be looked into. It is hard to place trust in IFI when it cannot seem to get its own house in order. We have seen multiple cases like Blackwater in Cork and Lough Sheelin in Cavan, where IFI was not able to detect a direct pollutant source. It is difficult for me, anglers and the general public to accept this or to understand how the IFI could be so unreliable. Habitat restoration has been set back years and the hundreds of thousands of euro spent on restoring fish stocks has just gone down the drain. What outcomes are being achieved and why are stocks continuing to collapse? To see fish kills happening in multiple lakes and rivers without any explanation is both unacceptable and unjustifiable. There needs to be more accountability from IFI.
To move on to fisheries and the marine, the Minister of State referred earlier to extreme elements within Parliament. To what was the Minister of State referring? I have seen my colleagues standing up for fishermen and for fishing communities time and time again. Most of us get very passionate about it, which is admirable because it means that we really care. The real problem here is that the Irish fishing industry is being slowly phased out but the Government is more or less pretending that this is not happening. We have statements on fishing and each time we hear that progress is being made but the reality on the ground is that this is not true. A 70% reduction in mackerel cannot be glossed over. It is devastating for the industry. Irish fishermen are only permitted to catch 28 tonnes of sole from their own waters while Belgian fishermen can catch up to 400 tonnes. No one understands what is happening better than fishing communities themselves. They are watching their legacy and businesses dying out. The big five Dutch companies which have massive control over quotas across the EU are investing significantly in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Is the Minister of State addressing this and how is he doing so? If people are coming across to the Minister of State as extreme, it is because we are hearing first hand, every single day, from fishermen who are fighting to save their communities, livelihoods and families.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-04