Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Minister is as appalled as the rest of us about how the OCI failed in its corporate governance and failed the athletes, the very people it is supposed to represent, but the Government's decision to withhold further funding from the OCI means the people who will be penalised are the athletes. The current board is reforming at an accelerated pace and the Minister acknowledged this. What decisions has the Minister taken or will he take to ensure Mr. Hickey and the cronies he associated with, the people who facilitated Mr. Hickey's actions for several years, pay the price, and that there are consequences for them and not the athletes, by withholding future funding?

Yesterday, I asked two specific questions in that context. Is the Minister happy that a previous board member who served under Mr. Hickey continues to serve as a board member of the OCI? How much has the OCI paid in legal fees for Mr. Hickey since this began? The Minister referred to other committees and the power of compellability. I was never on the Committee of Public Accounts, but my understanding from looking at other committees is that sometimes the threat of compellability is enough to make people come in and answer questions put by elected people. Mr. Hickey could have come in and could be compelled to do so, to answer questions relating to his running of the OCI since he became its president. That would not be a case of him incriminating himself on what is under investigation in Rio because they are not interested in how the OCI was run, but we are. We might get to the bottom of how the OCI signed a contract up to 2026 with THG. We can all come in here and be appalled, and criticise what happened in the past, but what most people watching this want to know is what the consequences will be for the people who have been identified, who acted in an inappropriate manner when they were in pivotal positions.