Ms Sarah Keane:

From that perspective people were wary around running for election. It is an issue in terms of governance but we can change it. There are two fundamental pieces of governance that make a difference and both are referred to in the Deloitte report. The first is term limits - in other words, an individual must resign after a particular timeframe. This allows for individuals to put themselves forward. It is very difficult for people to stand against an individual who has been in a position for a lengthy period of time and has built up relationships in the area. People are reluctant to stand against such an individual lest they fail, as happened and people then suffered the consequences, which is what people have told me. The second issue is weighted voting. There was and currently is weighted voting. I will explain. Under company law the members vote at meetings. This is referred to in the report but it is only when one gets into the detail that one begins to understand it because again it is quite complex. It is a members meeting because the directors get to vote at board meetings. The biggest power that members have is being able to vote-in their board. They decide who will represent them on the board and run the organisation day-to-day on their behalf. In the Olympic Council of Ireland articles - this is not illegal - outgoing board members have a vote, as well as the member federations in terms of the elections. If there are 36 organisations, which was previously the case - we have more now because some new sports have been introduced - and 13 board members who have votes and all of them are aligned then they control at least 25% of the vote. If their member federations also back a particular person he or she is automatically re-elected. Looking at the system in a particular way, it is set to make it hard for new people to be elected unless they are supported by the current executive.