The Oireachtas Joint Committee quizzed the FAI and Sport Ireland over three and a half hours today.
There will be minutes of the full session available in time for the historic record but it is worth highlighting some of the areas touched upon.
Confidence and trust were cited as central to the probing on the matter of the payment to the CEO referenced in our preview this morning.
There remained a sense that the elected members of the Committee were unconvinced by the answers, even though the majority were statements of fact on how the FAI had been rebuilt, and an acceptance that there had been an inadvertent breach which had been apologised for and fixed.
Sport Ireland were asked directly if they had absolute confidence in the individuals on the executive of the board. Dr Una May reiterated the advances that had been made in meeting 97 percent of the 163 points in the Memorandum of Understanding, and that they were comfortable in relation to the journey that the FAI had made and was continuing to make.
On the wider matters of long term funding here are some of the main points:
Senator Fintan Warfield asked why €431 million of Sports Capital Grant funding over the past two decades went to GAA clubs and only €188 million went to football clubs. Cían O’Líonáin on the part of the Department answered that in part the issue is that the application for the Sports Capital Grant scheme has to come from the individual clubs and the clubs have to be compliant with a number of criteria.
The key element here relates to the need for a long term lease or ownership of the grounds, something that is less prevalent in football than it is in Gaelic Games or Rugby.
The Department were always looking at ways in which funding could be increased for sport in relation to the overall National Development Plan, and that the FAI’s infrastructure planning was useful in this regard.
Jonathon Hill stressed that “there has been 20 years of under investment in the infrastructure of the game, and that no single entity was wholly responsible for that, but that it needed to change.
Senator Micheál Carrigy questioned the structure of the FAI being made up of multiple independent organisations, a point to which Jonathon Hill replied that the cascading of good governance and a consolidation of rule books and processes was already being done and that an overall look at the structure might be considered in the future.
Carrigy’s own County Longford has 13 of 15 clubs that are renting grounds, and are therefore excluded from application to Sports Capital funding.
Chair Niamh Smyth rounded out the initial discussion focusing on the infrastructure plan, asking that the FAI plan would not be taking up the entire money relating to all sport. The Department stressed that the wider Sports Capital Project funding was too important to be undermined, that they were always looking at ways in which funding could be increased for sport in relation to the overall National Development Plan, and that the FAI’s infrastructure planning was useful in this regard.
She also probed on where the annual €12 million needed on top of central funding would be found. Discussions with regard to local authority, health and education budgets were under way at local level and that a multi-sport approach to facilities was going to be central to these.
The point was made about this being an ambition based on long term thinking and that this was something which had not been done before but Smyth questioned whether ambition was realistic given the fact that funding for PE halls in schools was already under serious pressure.
The second round of members questions kicked off again with Alan Dillon who dived back into the detail of messages and emails that would need to be furnished in order to complete trust, referring to the statements given by those present as a “cock and bull story.”
Chris Andrews questioned again some of the detail about the application process for the Sports Capital Grants questioning the disparity of opportunity between “working class areas like I represent” and “leafier suburbs.”
Cian O’Líonáin replied that work was undertaken to assist clubs in terms of their ability to benefit from the funding.
Andrews then raised the issue of an approach regarding funding advances made by overseas investors, which had been subject to a non disclosure agreement but which was ultimately rejected on the basis of overly aggressive media rights projections as being the base of the proposal.
Brendan Griffin asked about the make up and expertise of the FAI committees and also raised the concern again over smaller clubs not being equipped as well as others to apply for funding, and the possiblity of a land purchase grant, a point that was enthusiastically backed by FAI President Paul Cook.
He asked the cost of the Senior Men’s team not qualifying for the Euro 2024 Finals, to which Jonathon Hill answered around the figure of @10 million.
Senator Shane Cassells spoke out strongly in support of a reshaping of the annual betting levy, and then asked the new President about his style, before asking again on technical details relating to the Dalymount Park and Finn Harps funding requests of the Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund.
That was it. Hours and days of preparation, questions asked and answered, the role of the Oireachtas to question organisations in receipt of public funding boxed off until the next time, and the FAI back to the day job of running the sport.
