The CEO of the North Western Regional Fisheries Board, Vincent Roche, is to step down from his post at the end of April after 25 years in charge of the region’s inland fisheries.
Mr Roche told a meeting of his board last Thursday that, with the fisheries service scheduled to undergo major restructuring over the coming months, he felt the time was now right for him to step down. The fisheries boards are to be replaced by a new national authority, Inland Fisheries Ireland, on July 1. The Government has decided that the new authority will retain an office in Ballina.
Mr Roche joined the fisheries board as chief officer in 1985, having previously worked as a civil servant in the former Departments of Social Welfare and Industry and Commerce. The chairman of the board, John Walkin, said he greatly regretted Mr Roche’s decision to leave the fisheries service and said his departure would represent a huge loss to the service. He described Vincent Roche as a highly dedicated and capable public servant who had overseen massive development and improvement in fisheries throughout the region over the past 25 years. The chairman’s comments were echoed by several other board members at last week’s meeting in Ballina.
