Mr. Pat Ryan:

To answer Deputy Brendan Griffin's question, it will be difficult to fill the void Billy has left. If we could do it all over again, we might possibly prefer it if he had not walked into the office. We have a very successful coaching team that operates within the high performance unit. It is important to emphasis that it is the system which is in place that justifies the success we have seen. Billy played the lead role and did a remarkable job, absolutely. However, his experience will now be passed on. Zaur Antia has been beside him all the way for the past 13 years. John Conlan who is the Ulster high performance coach and also contributes to the national high performance coaching team is a very accomplished coach in his own right. He is the father of Michael Conlan who recently won a gold medal in Doha. In addition, we have Eddie Bolger, another valued member whom we appointed in the past 12 months. He took over responsibility for Joe Ward at youth stage because his club coach, Seamus Dorrington, was not in a position to continue with him at the time. Eddie took over coaching responsibilities for Joe for a number of years and is now a member of the high performance coaching staff. Joe is the current World Championships silver medalist.

As members can see, we have developed coaches who have grown within the system which was headed up by Billy. It is very important that we have additional coaches who have spent a number of years working in the high performance area.