Government Minister sponsored dubious scheme

Frank Fahey, while Minister for the Marine, bent the rules on the registration of fishing boat capacity to the advantage of only six applicants to a scheme, while excluding a family that had lost a father and son at sea. By Vincent Browne

In October 1981, a fishing boat sank off the Donegal coast. Its owner and skipper, Francis Byrne, drowned, along with his son and three other crew members. The surviving members of the Byrne family subsequently left the fishing business.

Therefore, when a special scheme was introduced in 2000 by the then Minister for the Marine, Frank Fahey, Fianna Fáil TD for Galway West, the Byrne family did not become aware of what was on offer within the time frame allowed. (This was because notice of the scheme was confined to the representative fishing organisations and the fishing industry press. No notice of the scheme was posted, for instance, in the local press in Donegal.)

The scheme related to EU regulations which had required that all fishing boats be registered in a new register by the end of January 1990. The capacity of all boats was included on the register, and this counted towards Ireland's fishing fleet capacity, which is controlled under EU rules. There was no provision for boats which were registered under the previous system but lost at sea before the new register came into force, to be accepted on to the new register.

However in June 2001, Frank Fahey, the then Minister, in the face of reservations from officials in his Department, arranged for a new scheme to be implemented whereby boats lost at sea, but not registered on the new register, could now have their capacity registered, provided this was done by the end of 2001.

This replacement capacity was a valuable asset and could be sold on, independently of the actual boats. Therefore the scheme insisted upon by Frank Fahey represented a considerable gain for those who could benefit under it.

The reason for the concern of officials in the Department was that if an appreciable amount of additional replacement capacity was registered, then Ireland might exceed the quota allowed under EU rules. But Frank Fahey pressed ahead. In all, 67 applications were made under the scheme, but only six were approved.

Then, in January 2003, an application was made by a member of the Byrne family, Danny Byrne, with a cover note from Frank Fahey's cabinet colleague, Mary Coughlan, then Minister for Social Community and Family Affairs. The application was refused by Frank Fahey's Department on the grounds that it was submitted out of time.

The Byrne family made the following points in response: they were unaware of the existence of the scheme because they were no longer connected with the fishing industry and did not read the industry press; the fishing organisations which had notice of the scheme had no incentive to make people that were not then in the industry aware of it; the Department had put certain people on notice of the scheme but had not placed the Byrne family on notice; the Department should have been aware of their loss; there was no need to have concern about establishing a precedent in this case for there was no similar case; the humanitarian aspect of the case should be taken into account.

The Department was adamant. No exception would be made for the Byrne family.

The issue was referred to the Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, by Jim Higgins, the Fine Gael MEP for Connaught Ulster and, in her report on the matter, she stated, "the scheme was seriously deficient and flawed".

The issue has been raised on a number of occasions in the Dáil. On 15 June last, Tommy Broughan of the Labour Party enquired: "Who were the six applicants who qualified for compensation out of the 67? Where were they from? It was alleged that some of the beneficiaries of the scheme were from the constituency of (Frank Fahey)".