Tributes have been paid to Dr Noel Cawley, a leading figure in the food and equine sector who also played a key role in several Government seafood initiatives.

Dr Cawley, who died late last month at the age of 78 after a short illness, was former chief executive of the Irish Dairy Board and chair of Teagasc and the Irish Horse Board.

However, he was appointed chair of the Government’s seafood review and implementation group in June 2006, along with former Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation chief executive Joey Murrin and Údaras na Gaeltachta chief executive Ruan Ó Bric.

The 600 million euro “Cawley strategy” for the fishing industry published in January 2007 included a 66 million euro fleet decommissioning scheme. He had no knowledge of the fishing industry, but applied his vast experience in the food sector to draw up a roadmap he was also asked to implement.

Cawley remarked that he “met so many fine, decent people” during consultations around the coast that “you often wonder why [Government] departments can't go out more and meet and explain”.

“Whereas farmers own their land, fishermen don't. This makes the uncertainty for them all that much greater," he noted.

He also remarked at the time that when he came up with any “daft notions”, Joey Murrin would put him right.

In November 2013, the then marine minister Simon Coveney also asked him to chair a national implementation group on discards of fish. This followed the introduction of a new policy to end the wasteful practice of discarding fish at sea, as is a key part of the reformed Common Fisheries Policy.

Minister for Agriculture and the Marine Charlie McConalogue was among those who paid tribute to him after his passing on June 29th.

Read his obituary in The Sunday Independent here