Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 13 December 2023
Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media
Football Association of Ireland's Facility Investment Vision and Strategy, and Governance Issues: Discussion
Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source
Okay. Ms Joyce stated an hour ago here that the breaches were unintentional. They cannot have been unintentional. There was a request, and there was a payment. It breached the MOU, and critically, Ms Joyce's advice to the chair was that it was not good practice and she would not recommend it, and he was so advised. So it was not unintentional. The only reason it stopped is because an auditor saw that clearly on the books. There was a clear intention to make a payment, and the onus was to check the consequences. People either did not check or did not care but it was not unintentional.
Mr. Hill is welcome. Other committee members and I met Mr. Hill and his leadership team at Abbotstown on 23 May of this year to discuss the future of Irish football. One thing that struck me on that day is the fact that Mr. Hill was at pains to stress that this was a new regime, different from the last. In fact, he would not even say the name of John Delaney, simply referring to his "predecessor". It was akin to Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter movies, "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named". I do not have the Hogwarts guide to magic with me today but I do have the FAI employee handbook. Mr. Hill has read this?
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