Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It was said to us. We had a very serious clarification of that yesterday in respect of people who appear in front of the committee from the courts. At the meeting two weeks ago, the chief executive of the FAI said that he was told that he would not have to answer that question. I found it unacceptable that people would come in and be told that they were not required to answer an important question in the public domain.

I will not go into the ticketing issue because the Minister said that he is constrained in what he can say on that. Very often, the press will hold organisations to account, as we do in this committee. For example, the FAI does not have a press conference after its AGM. Yesterday, the OCI stated that it would have a very significant restriction on the press or people attending the upcoming AGM, a position it then rowed back from. I presume the code of governance will address that kind of issue because it is really important that this public accountability exists. The Olympic Games last year were overshadowed by a controversy that undermined the very valuable contribution our athletes made. The Minister of State is correct. Very often, governance walks sporting organisations into these unfortunate scenarios. Will the requirement that there be a public component be part of the code of governance? I believe it should be.