Mr. Joe Christle:

No. What was being offered to him in the agreement in August was that he would remain as a permanent employee with his remuneration going up at the levels that I am talking about. What I am trying to convey to the committee is that the IABA did not want him to go. Firstly, we never asked him to leave or change his employment status. I have already put it on the record that even at the very last deal he shook my hand and said "These terms are acceptable to me". We said: "There is always the choice to remain as a permanent employee. That is the choice that you can always make and we will fight for increases of the more modest 5% or 10% and bonuses for you." The choice was made because he was comparing the offer that was there in terms of the length of time of the employment of contract with his offer in America.

He is not here, nor does anybody in the room actually know what he was offered in America - none of the terms and conditions of that offer.

The IABA is not entitled to know and would never have asked what those terms and conditions were. We have to respect his right to negotiate on his own behalf and then try to fight to retain him. If we come up with various propositions, such as acting as a contractor, as a fixed term employee or waiving his exclusivity of service, they are all ideas to try to find another way to keep him in Ireland and keep him involved, not only as the high performance unit’s head coach but also in sport, and lending his expertise to the other sports, that indicates the IABA wants him to stay.