{"id":329099,"date":"2026-03-04T21:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T21:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/329099\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T21:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T21:44:09","slug":"former-state-agency-chief-told-gardai-he-was-being-blackmailed-by-a-senator-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/329099\/","title":{"rendered":"Former State agency chief told garda\u00ed he was \u2018being blackmailed\u2019 by a senator \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former chief executive of a State agency told garda\u00ed<\/a> he was being \u201cblackmailed\u201d by a senator, the Workplace Relations Commission<\/a> (WRC) has been told. <\/p>\n

Francis O\u2019Donnell, former chief executive at Inland Fisheries Ireland<\/a> (IFI), indicated at a hearing on Wednesday he had been pressurised in an attempt to have reinstated an employee at the organisation who had been suspended pending an investigation into allegations made against him.<\/p>\n

Giving evidence, O\u2019Donnell said he had told garda\u00ed in July 2022 that he believed that \u201csignificant fraud had occurred at IFI\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said he met garda\u00ed by appointment and told them he had been pressurised by the former chairman of IFI<\/a> not to proceed \u201cwith that process or any process in relation to that fraud\u201d.<\/p>\n

On the first day of his direct evidence on Tuesday, O\u2019Donnell maintained that he had been threatened by the former IFI chairman \u2013 whom he identified as Fintan Gorman \u2013 after he suspended Gorman\u2019s brother as part of an investigation into allegedly misusing an official fuel card and a vehicle owned by the organisation.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell also said subsequently the then Department of Environment and Communications \u2013 the parent department of IFI \u2013 had received a protected disclosure setting out allegations against him.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, O\u2019Donnell said he had told garda\u00ed in the summer of 2022 that allegations made against him in the protected disclosure were being used by a senator to have the individual who had been suspended pending an investigation reinstated to his role. <\/p>\n

The former chief executive also said he had been informed by a senior official in the Department of Environment and Climate that a senator had called him to say if the person concerned was not reinstated, details in the protected disclosure would be made public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI advised garda\u00ed that I was being blackmailed by a senator at that time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Former Inland Fisheries Ireland chief says governance issues \u2018weaponised\u2019 against himOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He maintained the senator had told another senior official in the Department of Environment that he (O\u2019Donnell) had links to the Continuity IRA. <\/p>\n

The identity of the senator who was accused of blackmailing the former chief executive was not made known at the hearing.<\/p>\n

Adjudication officer Michael MacNamee asked O\u2019Donnell whether there had been a Garda investigation into his complaints. The former IFI chief executive said there had been.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas there any prosecution?\u201d MacNamee asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no prosecution,\u201d O\u2019Donnell replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre any contemplated?\u201d the adjudicator asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot contemplated at this time, to my knowledge,\u201d the former IFI chief executive answered.<\/p>\n

The evidence given by O\u2019Donnell on Wednesday generated significant legal argument regarding the rights of third parties who may be identified in the proceedings at the WRC.<\/p>\n

Counsel for IFI Tiernan Lowey said very, very serious allegations had been made against a public official who was not present.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe person named is running for elected office this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The adjudication officer said he had asked the parties in the case on two occasions whether they wanted the case to be heard in private, but both had favoured a public hearing.<\/p>\n

The adjudication officer imposed interim reporting restrictions on the evidence given by O\u2019Donnell on Wednesday morning until he considered the issue further in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Unsigned allegations about fisheries agency referred to garda\u00ed by TDsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In the afternoon, the adjudication officer told solicitor for The Irish Times Matthew Austin that there were no restrictions being imposed and the evidence given in the morning could be published.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell told the hearing that he had three meetings with Fintan Gorman in March\/April of 2022, in the weeks after he suspended his brother. <\/p>\n

He said one in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, had been very tense. He said at that meeting the chairman had wanted to raise issues about the suspension of his brother.<\/p>\n

He said a meeting at a hotel in Galway was similar.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell maintained that Fintan Gorman had told him at that meeting that \u201che had the numbers for a vote of no confidence and remove me as CEO\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said a third meeting in Ballyshannon around April 19th, 2022, was \u201cquite fraught\u201d. He said the same issue about his brother had been raised and that he had said he could not discuss it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe asked me to go outside, which I did. He said he would make things public about me that would be very damaging to myself and my wife,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell said Fintan Gorman had resigned as chairman of IFI on April 28th, 2022.<\/p>\n

The hearing continues on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former chief executive of a State agency told garda\u00ed he was being \u201cblackmailed\u201d by a senator, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,61,10914,60,43,6465],"class_list":["post-329099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-ie","tag-inland-fisheries-ireland","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-workplace-relations-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}