Mr. Kieran Mulvey:

I was appointed chair of the Irish Sports Council in 2009. Largely, that was on foot of some difficulties that had arisen previously in regard to the presence of representatives of the Irish Sports Council, high-performance directors and Ministers. Members the committee and people involved in the political process were aware that Ministers were humiliated at international events or on the arrival of the team back to Dublin. A former Taoiseach was publicly chastised on one such occasion at Dublin Airport. The general feeling given to me at the time of my appointment by departmental officials and the appointing Minister was that it was because, to large degree, I had the skills as a mediator and someone who brings peace. What they did not want was any rows between the Irish Sports Council and other bodies. We were just coming in on the foot of a difficult relationship with Athletics Ireland which had a legal outing. Second, we were on the trajectory to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

The clear feeling expressed to me at that time was that the Olympic Council of Ireland, OCI, wanted operational agreements, no public disputation between the Irish Sports Council and the Olympic Council of Ireland and to get to a position where Irish athletes were represented internationally without us making a show of ourselves internationally. As Mr. John Treacy related in response to Senator O'Mahony, that was on the back of a situation where in a number of cases our Olympic Games participation was highlighted more for the public disputation that took place on foreign shores and at home. That was largely the feeling around it.

The other issue which I became more familiar with the more I met people from the Olympic Council of Ireland, and not just Mr. Hickey but other officials, was that they guarded their autonomy jealously and that they were responsible only to one body, that is, the International Olympic Committee. That is the position in international law. It even goes down to the trademark of the circles, the five rings, and the protection they have over that. Mr. Justice Moran alludes to it rather delicately but he pointedly states that they guarded that autonomy jealously. That might have been an interpretation at the time or an overstatement but many people in Ireland, political and otherwise, had felt the raw touch of that assertion.