THE Government's special commissioner to the Southern Regional Fisheries Board, Mr Seamus Keating, assumes management control this week and is due to attend his first board meeting in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, tonight.
The commissioner is understood to have been armed with a warrant yesterday when he took up office. Mr Keating, who is a former Kerry and Galway county manager, was appointed under amended legislation by the Minister of State for the Marine, Mr Eamon Gilmore, in response to "management deficiencies" in the organisation.
"We welcome him and we hope to have a constructive working relationship with him," Mr Jim Butler, the board's chairman, commented yesterday, after greeting the commissioner in Clonmel, along with Mr James Rogers, the current manager.
The commissioner's attendance at tonight's board meeting would "give him a chance to get to know people, eyeball to eyeball", Mr Butler said. "We will assist him in every way possible."
Mr Keating will be responsible for the key functions of protection, conservation and management, while licensing and fisheries rates will continue to be administered by the board. The appointment is for a six month period initially and may be renewed by the Minister for up to two years under the Fisheries (Amendment Act) 1995.
The commissioner is a native of Co Tipperary and recently retired after 45 years in local government. He worked in the Clonmel office, Tipperary South Riding, as finance officer from 1948 to 1953 and again from 1963 to 1966. He served subsequently with Waterford County Council in Dungarvan, and was appointed Donegal county secretary in 1966. He became county manager in Kerry in 1970, and in Galway from 1973 until last year.
Two fishery inspectors who are subject to criminal prosecution were suspended by the board earlier this month. The commissioner's appointment is the latest stage in a sequence of events involving the board, which resulted in a lengthy Garda investigation last year.
The Minister of State also commissioned a consultant's report on the board's management, which was severely critical of its operations.
