Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. We cannot forget that this is really all about the sport. It is primarily about the boxers themselves but also but the clubs and wonderful tradition of amateur and professional boxing in this country. Boxing is one of the few sports on the island of Ireland that are under the one flag.

This has been a debacle and a travesty. We need to look at it objectively. From what I have been hearing and I have heard it here again today, there is what I would term a milk-an-water attitude by the Irish Amateur Boxing Association to many aspects of all this. There has been procrastination throughout the saga. It was very unfortunate that the Dáil was in recess at the time in the late summer. It was very disturbing to everybody to hear that there were difficulties regarding the relationship between Billy Walsh and the boxing association.

The world is in awe of the success of Irish boxing for such a small nation. There are many factors involved in that. I compliment the Irish Amateur Boxing Association on keeping the ship going. Down through the years we have had a proud record. There has to be due recognition of that.

We have reached unprecedented levels and there is only one person over the last decade that we can really select and identify. I would say his technical team have been brilliant. Paddy Barnes, a very successful Olympic boxer, came out with some revealing statements recently. I would take that to be the authentic version of what is happening. These are the people who have been at the coalface.

It is regrettable that this has gone to such a level. Billy Walsh is not here to defend himself. In his statement he stated:

I was shocked at the tone and content of the new fixed term contract in that it consistently undermined my role and my authority at every turn.

The new fixed term contract gave me very few legal protections and prevented me from having any contact with the Irish Sport Council (ISC) or the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) for example. These are key stakeholders that I need to deal with on a regular basis due to the nature of my role and the work of the programme. I was prevented from having contact with the ISC or OCI without prior written permission of the CEO. This stipulation also included any contact with the media.

I was given absolutely no autonomy in the new contract...

There are several things that stand out here. Billy Walsh is an honest man and I take his word at face value. We are well aware that he was bound to be pursued and courted by the American boxing association. Who knows, perhaps behind the scenes there might be some other large nations after him also. That would only be in the nature of the business, given his success.

The Sport Ireland statement stated:

Sport Ireland believes that the proposal tabled on the 22nd August by the Sports Council, and supported by Billy Walsh, and the IABA representatives presented a realistic and fair framework to ensure his retention.

It is not clear why this proposal was never presented to the board of the IABA...

That is something that needs explanation. The statement also states, "it was prepared to provide funding for the financial cost of any agreement arising, if it was agreeable to both sides".

The IABA then concluded that there had been successful talks and negotiations. This was proven not to be the case. The horse has bolted and has left at this stage. The point about it is that I do not think some of the explanations we are getting today are valid or credible.

The bottom line is that this will be a very hard role to fill in future. It is a loss to Irish boxing. As a small nation, we have been - pardon the pun - punching above our weight.

Does the IABA accept there was undue delay and that many petty obstacles put in the way of reaching a working agreement with Mr. Billy Walsh? Has the IABA learned from the travesty? In future negotiations with a potential head of boxing, will it eliminate some of the overzealous and inappropriate terms that were imposed in the context of Mr. Walsh's contract?