Údarás na Gaeltachta is confident 60 jobs at a Connemara fish farm firm can be protected, following the appointment yesterday of a receiver to Gaelic Seafoods Ireland.
The firm says its management has undertaken to work with the receiver to dispose of the assets as a going concern. Gaelic Seafoods, once a major player in the Irish aquaculture industry, employs 60 staff at two sea sites in Bertraghboy Bay and Tully Mountain, Connemara, and at its packing station in Carna, Co Galway.
Last week, it was presented by the Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey, with a quality award approved by Bord Iascaigh Mhara, and certified by the Irish Food Quality Certification. But EU and State grant-aid of €596,256 approved under the National Development Plan late last year had not come through when the firm ran into difficulty. It met its bankers yesterday.
A spokesman for Údarás said the grant was due to be issued but the paperwork had not been completed. It is understood there have been inquiries about purchasing the farm, given that the sites are licensed. Salmon farms have been experiencing a downturn in prices over the past six months, with cheap imports from Chile late last summer depressing the European market further. But prices have begun to return from a low of €2.60 a kilo in January to around €3.57 a kilo for quality fish.
Gaelic Seafoods has had a chequered history. The original Connemara farms were set up by the ESB and Údarás, until the ESB sold out its share to tobacco firm Carrolls. The farms were then bought by Gaelic, a Scottish firm which also acquired fish farm and freshwater hatcheries in various parts of the State.
Its managing director, Mr Stuart Baillie, was already under police investigation, and later resigned when he was arrested in Britain on charges of fraud. In 1999, he was given a five-year jail sentence by a Scottish court for his part in frauds totalling almost €12.25 million.
A company statement yesterday said management had agreed to appoint the receiver for an "orderly disposal of assets as a going concern". It said the priority was the continued smooth operation of the company.
