The ail Minister for the Marine, Dr Woods, has approved the appointment of a Democratic Left adviser as temporary manager of the Southern Regional Fisheries Board.
Mr Micheal O Cinneide's appointment followed the temporary suspension of the board's manager, Mr James Rogers, in May, after an internal inquiry by the board's special commissioner, Mr Seamus Keating.
Mr O Cinneide was programme manager in the last government to the Democratic Left minister of state for the marine, Mr Eamon Gilmore, and previously was manager of the Irish Salmon Producers Group in Connemara, one of the largest salmon exporters in the country.
He had been involved in the seafood industry for nine years.
The southern board is based in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, and covers an 85-mile catchment area of the rivers Barrow, Nore, Suir and Blackwater.
The southern board has been involved in controversy since 1994 and Mr Keating, a former Galway and Kerry county manager, was himself appointed last year after a consultancy report severely criticised the board's management.
Meanwhile, in a separate development, the trial of two of the board's fishery officers on alleged corruption charges is expected to go ahead in October at the start of the next legal term. The case had been scheduled for the end of July but was postponed.
The two men have pleaded not guilty to corruptly accepting money as an inducement to show favour, or not to show disfavour, to a boat firm, in the fishery board's business.
