What is going on over at Inland Fisheries Ireland, the agency responsible for “protecting, managing and conserving” Ireland’s inland fisheries and sea angling resources?

Why are so many people who work at a place where – if you try and find out who runs it – you get a message saying that the page referring to the board is (as of 27.06.23) currently being updated – blowing the whistle about it?

Although he says he can’t say exactly how many Protected Disclosures there have been at IFI, Minister Eamon Ryan has admitted in the Oireachtas that the number is in the “high single digits” – which presumably is code for 7, 8 or 9.

Whatever the reason and whatever the exact number, the Protected Disclosures must have all been made very recently as none were made in each of the years between 2016 and 2021.

Added to this, it is worth noting that – as the Irish Examiner reported in March of this year, the marine body spent just under €1m on the legal services of 24 separate firms between 2020 and 2022.

Figures released by Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy show the IFI spent €996,000 over the past three years on legal fees.

Busy place . . . 

If you happen to stumble across this post and work at IFI and have a whistle you would like to blow in the direction of a journalist, and in the strictest of confidence (see some tips on that) please get in touch.