Ms Anne Marie McMahon:

The company was set up in 1993. The purpose of setting up the company was to develop sports facilities for student gardaí in particular, following the recommendations of the Walsh report. I cannot second guess the rationale of those people who set up the company. The first directors were a deputy commissioner, an assistant commissioner and a representative of all of the ranks in An Garda Síochána. The rationale for setting up the company was to develop sports facilities. When the 2005 Act came into being, there were some questions around the Commissioner owning land and so forth. The organisation's legal advisor at the time, Ms Marie-Claire Maney, gave advice to the effect that the Sportsfield company was in existence prior to the enactment of the 2005 Act and that the legislation did not retrospectively apply. That was the position and the company remained in being.

As I have already outlined, I went to the Garda college in 2011. During my initial period of time at the college I was focused on a wind-down or de-scaling of the operation and there were several iterations of that as the country went deeper into recession. In or around the middle of 2013, I began examining the Sportsfield company and related matters. I was concerned, very much in line with the Deputy's question, as to the role members of An Garda Síochána were playing in terms of being directors of the company and so forth. I initiated a process, the aim of which was to wind up the Sportsfield company and to bring the lands into the ownership of the OPW and I called a meeting in relation to that. I believe the committee has documentation relating to various meetings-----