The Irish Ombudsman’s office has opened an investigation into “possible maladministration” by the Irish Department of Agriculture Food and Fisheries (DAFF) during the ongoing investigation by the European Union into sea lice at Irish salmon farms.
The environmental lobby group Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) filed a complaint with the E.U. alleging that DAFF concealed an Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) report from E.U. investigators. According to FIE, the IFI report alleged the Irish system “does not constitute good sea lice control.”
“IFI provided these views to DAFF in October 2010, strongly criticizing the position DAFF had made to the commission,” FIE wrote in a statement. “However, in November 2011 DAFF told the commission they had not received any IFI report.”
In addition, FIE alleged “DAFF told (IFI) that ‘transmission of your department’s observations to the commission would not only be misleading but would also cause confusion in the public mind regarding sea lice controls and possibly undermine the state’s regulatory system. For these reasons (DAFF) would ask you to withdraw the formal observations of your department and to support the observations supplied to the commission by DAFF."
