Mr. John Treacy:

I thank the Chairman. I am joined by Mr. Kieran Mulvey, chair of Sport Ireland. Both of us were pleased to accept the invitation to attend today.

Sport Ireland welcomes the publication of the Moran report into the circumstances and facts following events at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Sport Ireland was happy to co-operate fully with Mr. Justice Carroll Moran throughout the course of the inquiry and provided a detailed submission to the inquiry on its relationship with the Olympic Council of Ireland.

The report highlighted the challenges the inquiry encountered, in particular with regard to key individuals and agencies declining to participate in the process. We must respect the legal process in Brazil and the decisions of individuals and organisations in this regard. Notwithstanding that, the report is detailed and sheds significant light on the matter it was charged to investigate. Sport Ireland endorses the findings and recommendations of Mr. Justice Carroll Moran. It will provide support to the Olympic Council of Ireland as it works to improve the organisation's governance and will support it with the implementation of the recommendations contained in the report.

Mr. Justice Moran stated the relationship between Sport Ireland and the Olympic Council of Ireland is often quite difficult. As outlined in the report, however, operational agreements were in place between Sport Ireland and the Olympic Council of Ireland for both the Rio and London Olympic cycles. The parameters of both organisations working together were set out in these agreements. Sport Ireland is currently working with the Olympic Council of Ireland on an operational agreement covering the Tokyo Olympic cycle. As acknowledged in the Moran report, adherence to these operational agreements went a long way towards removing the potential for dispute that existed in the past.

As highlighted in the report, the Olympic Council of Ireland had a specific sensitivity around its independence and autonomy. Mr. Justice Moran sums it up very well on page 194:

The Olympic principle of autonomy is a strong value in the culture of the O.C.I. Sometimes it is applied inappropriately and in a manner not conducive to good governance. It can be used as an obstacle to forming more effective relationships with the Government and with Sport Ireland.

One member of the Executive Committee stated:It is a principle of the Olympic Charter that there can be no political interference in how the national Olympic committees or how the International Olympic Committee works.

The member also said, "I think it is used as a weapon to say: We cannot talk to them, we cannot listen to them, we can't cooperate with them, we can't do anything with them because that would be letting them interfere and tell us what to do, and that is against the Olympic Charter." That is a very powerful piece by Mr. Justice Moran. The council protected its independence vigorously.

The Olympic Council of Ireland has a unique status, and this is recognised in the Sydney review, which we conducted in 2000. Notwithstanding this and repeated assurances the that then Irish Sports Council did not wish to subsume the Olympic Council of Ireland, this remained as an issue until the operational agreement was in force.

The Moran inquiry dealt primarily with matters relating to ticketing and accreditation at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. While Sport Ireland welcomes and encourages the efforts of funded bodies to pursue commercial opportunities, it does not have, or seek, a role in the commercial operations of independent sports organisations. The specific matters referred to in the Moran report do not fall within Sport Ireland's area of authority.

Sport Ireland’s remit and interest in working with the Olympic Council of Ireland over many years has simply been in ensuring the best possible opportunity for Irish athletes to perform at their best at the Olympic Games. Sport Ireland invests significant amounts of public money in the development and preparation of Irish athletes for the Olympic Games. It is important that the two agencies work together to ensure Ireland will reach its potential.

The funding process for the Olympic Council of Ireland is documented in the Moran report. It is noted that the funding process for the Olympic Council of Ireland differs from that for other sports organisations. The difference is mainly in how the Olympic Council of Ireland accounts for money allocated through vouched expenditure. Sport Ireland has always monitored the usage of its funding to the Olympic Council of Ireland, knowing exactly where the money is spent. We also receive a letter from the OCI external auditor which verifies the expenditure. We only pay out money for vouched expenditure. Sometimes we allocated more money in the course of a year than was given because the level of vouched expenditure did not come up to the number we had allocated.

The Olympic Council of Ireland received €1.7 million in the Rio cycle. The details are available to the committee today. In 2016, €520,000 was allocated to the Olympic Council of Ireland, of which some €390,000 was paid. As everyone knows, the final 25% has not been drawn down to date. Funding for the Olympic Council of Ireland in 2017 has not been considered by the board of Sport Ireland and the matter is under consideration by the Minister.

The report addresses the issue of governance within the Olympic Council of Ireland, an area of interest to Sport Ireland. In a wider sense, Sport Ireland focuses on the governance of sports bodies, which is not an abstract concept as poor governance leads to poor outcomes. The report makes for interesting reading. Clearly, the decision-making process in this case led to bad outcomes for everyone involved and these matters have yet to be resolved. The Moran report makes specific reference to governance concerns within the Olympic Council of Ireland and Sport Ireland welcomes the report’s consideration of the community and voluntary code of governance with regard to what we have put in place for governing bodies of sport.

Sport Ireland was given the opportunity to appear before the committee in January this year to discuss the topic of governance within funded bodies. In 2016 the then Minister of State with responsibility for tourism and sport, Deputy Patrick O’Donovan, identified corporate governance as a key priority for Sport Ireland funded bodies. To this end, the Minister addressed the national governing bodies of sport in November and highlighted that implementation of the community and voluntary code of governance would become a condition of the receipt of funding. This will make it mandatory for all Sport Ireland funded bodies to start the process of adopting the code during 2017, on a comply or explain basis, to be completed by 2020. Sport Ireland welcomes the strong commitment of the newly elected executive committee of the Olympic Council of Ireland to governance reforms and furthering its objectives. The executive committee of the OCI has led a number of governance reforms within the OCI which were highlighted when the former Minister of State, Deputy Patrick O’Donovan, and Sport Ireland met the committee earlier this year. Sport Ireland notes that the Olympic Council of Ireland is also on the journey to adopt the community and voluntary code of governance.

On the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, the other specific area of interest to Sport Ireland is performance. Earlier this year it published The Rio Review, which was designed with the purpose of providing a fair assessment of Ireland’s Rio Olympics and Paralympics campaign and producing independent evidence-based recommendations which would be essential in improving the high-performance system. The key aspect of the review is that the individual sports took a greater level of control over the debrief process, which was a welcome and positive development.

Notwithstanding the significant national and international attention on the Olympic Council of Ireland and the documented issues surrounding the ticketing process, it did not emerge as a performance barrier for our athletes in Rio de Janeiro.

However, the unhappiness of those involved in the Games at the situation was expressed in The Rio Review.

Looking ahead to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Sport Ireland is developing an operational agreement in conjunction with the Olympic Council of Ireland which dictates the relationship between agencies in the lead-up to and at the games. From a high-performance perspective, The Rio Review provides a blueprint for Tokyo campaign. Sport Ireland is fully supportive of the OCI's new executive committee, and looks forward to working with the organisation in the lead-up to the Tokyo Games.

Sport Ireland's areas of interest are performance and governance. Notwithstanding the limitations of the Moran report, the inquiry was extremely worthwhile and clearly highlights the issues which existed within the OCI and shows that athletes were not at the forefront of the organisation's decision making. No matter which way the report is viewed, it does not show Irish sport in good light. As a result, Ireland has unarguably suffered reputational damage. The report highlights the clear and unambiguous need for good governance. The findings and recommendations of the report will help ensure that such circumstances do not arise again in the future.