A fresh complaint has been lodged by a fisheries officer who has claimed he was made a “sacrificial lamb” by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI).

A Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) hearing in Letterkenny, Co Donegal heard that James Doherty, from Buncrana, an assistant fisheries inspector with IFI, lodged the “up to date” complaint last month.

On Monday, the fifth day of a hearing involving the parties, WRC adjudicator Shay Henry said there was “no way” he could deal with the latest complaint as part of the ongoing proceedings.

“At some stage, we need to get to an end,” he said.

Tiernan Lowey, barrister for IFI, said his client was “grossly prejudiced” by the development and would defend those matters “in due course”.

Ciaran Elders, barrister for Doherty, said it had been IFI’s position that it did not want any evidence brought that was beyond the date of the initial claim.

“The only way that we could get that evidence was to bring a new claim,” he said. “It forms part of the penalisation that the claimant has suffered in this very case.”

Doherty claimed he was penalised and ostracised after he submitted protected disclosures to then minister for the environment Eamon Ryan and IFI’s senior management.

The disclosures regarded a controversy involving more than a dozen officially hired vehicles that were assigned to staff without insurance cover. In August 2021, while driving one of the uninsured IFI vehicles, Doherty was involved in a crash.

He, on Monday, said that “things changed” after he made the protected disclosure, which he had “sat on” for months beforehand.

Asked by Lowey if he believed he was prosecuted for careless driving following the crash because of a question mark over the insurance, Doherty replied: “I feel that there may have been influences.”

He said he received a summons two days short of the six-month deadline for one to be issued and also queried why IFI was not deemed a respondent in a personal injuries claim.

“There should have been another summons issued for no insurance,” Doherty said.

In correspondence opened to the hearing, Doherty wrote that he felt as if he was a “sacrificial lamb to make the legalities for IFI go away”.

Lowey argued there was a “false conflation” of the issues of insurance, the criminal prosecution and Doherty being sued.

Doherty was critical of the IFI’s handling of the matter, saying the agency should have made a representation to gardaí supporting him. “If it was handled differently, the gardaí would have seen there was a more honest approach to this.”

He claimed he “wasn’t looked after” by his employer following the collision. “I got a letter accusing me of producing incorrect insurance documents. I was accused. That is a serious allegation to make about someone.”

He said his reputation was “smeared” as a result with people talking locally as if he were “driving about with no insurance”.

He took issue with not being informed about what was happening during the 15-month period before IFI told him it would indemnify him in the personal injuries claim that followed the 2021 crash. The tribunal heard IFI paid out €204,947.27 in respect of the claim.

Lowey said IFI had told Doherty in correspondence that he would “remain safe” and would have a job “long-term” with the agency.

Doherty said he returned to work in February 2024, after a period in which he experienced mental health issues. He alleged that the “penalisation started” straight away.

The WRC heard in June that Doherty was the subject of an internal investigation into a complaint that he had deployed covert cameras at a location in Co Donegal in breach of IFI policy. He said a superior had directed that the cameras be put in place and two others had installed them, but only he faced an investigation.

He said he loved his job but felt he was seen “as a black sheep, a leper and outcast” and that his career 15-year with the agency was over after he made a disclosure to Francis O’Donnell, the then IFI chief executive.

The hearing continues.