Minister in funds row with fish farm chief

The head of a fish farm company put into receivership this week has hit out at the Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey, for allegedly stalling on payment of EU grants approved last year.

The Minister was clearly opposed to foreign investment in fish farming, Mr Robert Forman,general manager of Gaelic Seafoods, told The Irish Times.

The Minister has denied Mr Forman's claims, and said the company would have received the grants of €596,256 (£469,590) approved for it if its paperwork had been in order. This grant-aid was still in place if a new buyer for the company met all the criteria, the Minister said.

Mr Forman rejected suggestions that his company had contributed to the "endless delay" in processing the grant-aid approved last year.

He said he had been told by Údarás na Gaeltachta that the paperwork was "100 per cent in order", and an engineer had also given approval for the sites .

Three weeks ago, he said, he was informed by Údarás that "the cheque is on the way".

That cheque never arrived, Mr Forman said. This had been a "major contributing factor" to the decision to put the company into receivership. Shareholders had invested more than £1 million (€1.27 million) on the farm's infrastructure on the basis of the promised grant-aid, he said. He did not blame Údarás na Gaeltachta, but felt that the responsibility lay with the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources.

Mr Forman said the farm, which received a quality award only last week, was in excellent shape and there was serious interest from at least two potential buyers. However, foreign investors would need to know that their investment was encouraged, he said. Instead, the Minister had "publicly stated" that he would prefer to see Irish fish farms in local control.

The Minister denied he had said this, while acknowledging he had expressed the opinion that he favoured more indigenous involvement. He saw a great future for aquaculture, he said.