Mr. Joe Christle:

As I outlined previously, we will have a board meeting on Wednesday and they are exactly the terms upon which we will be considering this. We do not simply wish to appoint another head coach as what we want to get is a director of high performance. If that turns out to be a significant front-line coach as well, who has all the attributes, then two positions will have been filled. In all the appointments to which Mr. Fergal Carruth alluded since I have become chairman, it has always been the case that somebody from the Irish Sports Council has sat in on the process, on the interview panel and on the drawing up of the terms of employment, the duties and so on. On the appointment of Mr. Fergal Carruth, I worked with Gary Keegan to whittle down a list from 22 to eight. We were asked to bring it down to six but we could only get it down to eight.

I absented myself from consideration of anything to do with Fergal Carruth's application simply because he had acted as secretary to the board and I had had previous contact with him, so I said I could not be involved. There was an instance in which Gary Keegan had to say the same to me about one of the applicants.

We want to move forward in a way that is not only in tandem with but in agreement with the Irish Sports Council and the Department. I hate to use the much-bandied-about word "dysfunctional," but this dysfunctional communication or understanding involving the single most successful national governing body in the history of Irish sport must be repaired. I would like to be able to say both for myself and as a legacy to whoever comes after me that I assisted in the facilitation of that. The Deputy's words are well understood and taken on board.