Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and the Minister of State. I am amused that the Minister says new material has come to light. Many of the issues being discussed date back as far as a previous Minister, Dr. Jim McDaid, who also had a fray with Mr. Hickey about tickets and the operations of the OCI.

The Minister, Deputy Ross, could say he was not aware of any of these issues until the past 12 months but at the time of the London Olympic Games, the dogs on the street spoke about them. In that respect, I would be worried.

I wish to return to the issue raised by my colleague of the necessity to incur the cost of the report. I do not believe it has achieved what it set out to do and what we had hoped it would. I say this because the OCI had in the pipeline the commission of the Grant Thornton and Deloitte reports. In fairness, from the accounts given by the president of the OCI, Ms Sarah Keane, she is driving ahead with the recommendations made in the Deloitte report. She is under a legal challenge to the Grant Thornton report, but even Mr. Justice Moran refers to things moving in the right direction. The issue of governance is a big talking point with regard to current guidelines, but under previous so-called guidelines is the Minister saying the previous president of the OCI operated illegally and broke the laws or was just not performing properly? We might say he operated an autocratic regime, but was he breaking the law in relation to the functions of the OCI as a company?

I wish to turn to the Minister's meeting in Rio de Janeiro and the subsequent contact with the IOC. I see as an issue confidence in the IOC as the international governing body which oversees the operations of the various national associations, including the OCI. We appreciate that the Minister went to Rio de Janeiro - as he says - to get to the bottom of the issues involved. When the rest of the news came through, however, about Mr. Pat Hickey, the Minister could not wait to catch the first flight out of that country. I wonder if he should have hung around? He says he sought an appointment with Mr. Donovan Ferreti, ticketing director for the Rio Organising Committee of the Olympic Games. Obviously, it would have been an ideal opportunity for the Minister, but did it ever come back to him following the making of a request for a meeting? It was from its deliberations that the issue arose. Has the Minister had contact with Mr. Donovan Ferreti since?

In the context of the individuals involved, I know that if we were to have a tribunal of investigation or if there were ongoing criminal proceedings in this jurisdiction, we would be precluded from commenting on actions taken. As Deputy Troy asked, should we not respect the judicial system of Brazil? Are we not seen to have a gentleman's agreement in respect of criminal proceedings in Brazil? Should we perhaps stand back for the time being in the deliberations on the issue, as would happen if there was to be a similar issue in this country? Arrangements for other tribunals were put aside until criminal proceedings were completed. Should we not work along those lines? We are aware of all of the legal threats.