Former IFI chief’s WRC case continues as ex-chair backs right to return to another role

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Former Inland Fisheries Ireland chief executive Francis O’Donnell is pursuing complaints against the agency under the Protected Disclosures Act, Payment of Wages Act and Unfair Dismissals Act. At a Workplace Relations Commission hearing on October 12, former chairwoman Prof Frances Lucy said she understood that O’Donnell could return to a previous director role when his chief executive term ended, based on precedent and public sector practice.

IFI disputes that position. Its counsel argued that O’Donnell’s predecessor had accumulated fixed-term contracts that became indefinite, making his circumstances different. The WRC also heard a finance director’s account that a former HR chief had shown her a letter O’Donnell allegedly gave her asserting a right to return to a regional director post; O’Donnell denied the claim.

The complaints remain unresolved in the supplied reports. The case had been adjourned in September after O’Donnell said his legal team had come off record, and it was listed for seven further hearing days in October.