{"id":617841,"date":"2026-09-08T03:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T03:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/617841\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T03:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T03:54:16","slug":"man-lodges-fresh-complaint-alleging-inland-fisheries-ireland-made-him-sacrificial-lamb-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/617841\/","title":{"rendered":"Man lodges fresh complaint alleging Inland Fisheries Ireland made him \u2018sacrificial lamb\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fresh complaint has been lodged by a fisheries officer who has claimed he was made a \u201csacrificial lamb\u201d by Inland Fisheries Ireland<\/a> (IFI).<\/p>\n

A Workplace Relations Commission<\/a> (WRC) hearing in Letterkenny, Co Donegal<\/a> heard that James Doherty, from Buncrana, an assistant fisheries inspector with IFI, lodged the \u201cup to date\u201d complaint last month.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the fifth day of a hearing involving the parties, WRC adjudicator Shay Henry said there was \u201cno way\u201d he could deal with the latest complaint as part of the ongoing proceedings. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt some stage, we need to get to an end,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tiernan Lowey, barrister for IFI, said his client was \u201cgrossly prejudiced\u201d by the development and would defend those matters \u201cin due course\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ciaran Elders, barrister for Doherty, said it had been IFI\u2019s position that it did not want any evidence brought that was beyond the date of the initial claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way that we could get that evidence was to bring a new claim,\u201d he said. \u201cIt forms part of the penalisation that the claimant has suffered in this very case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doherty claimed he was penalised and ostracised after he submitted protected disclosures to then minister for the environment Eamon Ryan and IFI\u2019s senior management. <\/p>\n

The disclosures regarded a controversy involving more than a dozen officially hired vehicles that were assigned to staff without insurance cover. In August 2021, while driving one of the uninsured IFI vehicles, Doherty was involved in a crash.<\/p>\n

He, on Monday, said that \u201cthings changed\u201d after he made the protected disclosure, which he had \u201csat on\u201d for months beforehand.<\/p>\n

Asked by Lowey if he believed he was prosecuted for careless driving following the crash because of a question mark over the insurance, Doherty replied: \u201cI feel that there may have been influences.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he received a summons two days short of the six-month deadline for one to be issued and also queried why IFI was not deemed a respondent in a personal injuries claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should have been another summons issued for no insurance,\u201d Doherty said. <\/p>\n

In correspondence opened to the hearing, Doherty wrote that he felt as if he was a \u201csacrificial lamb to make the legalities for IFI go away\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lowey argued there was a \u201cfalse conflation\u201d of the issues of insurance, the criminal prosecution and Doherty being sued. <\/p>\n

Doherty was critical of the IFI\u2019s handling of the matter, saying the agency should have made a representation to garda\u00ed supporting him. \u201cIf it was handled differently, the garda\u00ed would have seen there was a more honest approach to this.\u201d<\/p>\n

He claimed he \u201cwasn\u2019t looked after\u201d by his employer following the collision. \u201cI got a letter accusing me of producing incorrect insurance documents. I was accused. That is a serious allegation to make about someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his reputation was \u201csmeared\u201d as a result with people talking locally as if he were \u201cdriving about with no insurance\u201d.<\/p>\n

He took issue with not being informed about what was happening during the 15-month period before IFI told him it would indemnify him in the personal injuries claim that followed the 2021 crash. The tribunal heard IFI paid out \u20ac204,947.27 in respect of the claim. <\/p>\n

Lowey said IFI had told Doherty in correspondence that he would \u201cremain safe\u201d and would have a job \u201clong-term\u201d with the agency.<\/p>\n

Doherty said he returned to work in February 2024, after a period in which he experienced mental health issues. He alleged that the \u201cpenalisation started\u201d straight away. <\/p>\n

The WRC heard in June that Doherty was the subject of an internal investigation into a complaint that he had deployed covert cameras at a location in Co Donegal in breach of IFI policy. He said a superior had directed that the cameras be put in place and two others had installed them, but only he faced an investigation.<\/p>\n

He said he loved his job but felt he was seen \u201cas a black sheep, a leper and outcast\u201d and that his career 15-year with the agency was over after he made a disclosure to Francis O\u2019Donnell, the then IFI chief executive. <\/p>\n

The hearing continues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fresh complaint has been lodged by a fisheries officer who has claimed he was made a \u201csacrificial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,10914,60,1486,43],"class_list":["post-617841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-inland-fisheries-ireland","tag-ireland","tag-letterkenny","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617841","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=617841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}