THE Government is to appoint a former Kerry and Galway county manager, Mr Seamus Keating, as commissioner of the Southern Regional Fisheries Board. The move comes in response to "management deficiencies" within the organisation.

The appointment is to be confirmed today by the Minister of State for the Marine, Mr Eamon Gilmore.

The move follows a motion in the Dail this week to establish the commission, which was introduced by the Minister of State.

Mr Keating will take over responsibility for the board's protection, conservation and management functions, while the Clonmel based board will retain responsibility for licensing and fisheries rates.

Two fishery inspectors who are subject to criminal prosecution were suspended by the board this month. The commissioner's appointment is the latest in a sequence of events involving the Southern Regional Fisheries 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.

Following publication of that report last month, Mr Gilmore gave the board 14 days' notice of his intention to transfer key functions to a commission, by an order under the Fisheries (Amendment) Act, 1995.

The board's manager Mr James Rogers, welcomed the consultancy report last month and said he looked forward to making the commission's task "as easy and productive as it can possibly be".

Last May, when the Government approved the amending legislation to facilitate this, Mr Rogers had said that he was amazed" at the plan, and said he took "grave exception" to the reference by the Minister and Minister of State to "management deficiencies".

The elected board has welcomed the latest moves and has said it envisages "no problems" in working with the commissioner.

Last month, it, expressed concern that the recent controversy would not obscure its positive achievements, which include stocks protection and pollution control

A new salmon hatchery on the River Suir was also nearing completion, it said in a statement. It added that it "sought neither to evade its responsibilities nor to conceal its difficulties".

During the debate on the commission in the Dail this week, a Fine Gael backbencher, Mr Austin Deasy (Waterford) claimed fishing corruption was "rife" and said that politicians and senior Garda officers who had turned a blind eye to it should face charges.

Mr Des O'Malley (PD, Limerick East) called on the Minister of State to review the structure of fisheries administration.

Mr Keating, the commissioner, is originally from Co Tipperary and retired recently after spending 45 years in local government.