Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Many of the questions have been asked already. I will not go into them in great detail but I would like to get clarity on some of them. On the issue of John Delaney's appointment to his new role, I do not know Mr. Delaney very well but I know that as an ambassador for Ireland and Irish sports he has done an amazing job and I am sure he will do an amazing job in this regard. He has worked on anti-racism and integration. I have been involved in the Oireachtas soccer teams that have taken part in games in this regard. It is important to highlight issues such as these and sport is a great way of doing so. Mr. Delaney has taken on board certain initiatives and has been very successful in doing so.

My colleague, Deputy Kevin O'Keeffe, asked a technical but important question. Am I correct that the €100,000 cheque was made out to a particular person? Is that correct? Was there a concern about a number of cheques? What is the overall figure of all the cheques? We have all been in a situation where we have written cheques whereby if they were all lodged in the same week, we would not have had enough money to meet them. Was it one particular cheque that the FAI thought would be the one to tip it over with regard to what was in its account? Deputy O'Keeffe made a very interesting point. If I were in that position, I would not write a cheque but do a cash transfer because by the time my cheque arrived in the account, it might not be cleared. Then the cheque on the other side would be processed and also might not be cleared. I am concerned about the logistics. The first thing I would do if the €100,000 would tip me over the edge would be to ask the recipient to hold off until the following Monday as I would be okay by then. Deputy O'Keeffe made a very interesting point on this. He stated one would not write cheques but would make cash transfers from one bank account to another so it would be immediate. One would then not be worried about whether a cheque was lodged. More importantly, in the normal course of events - perhaps this is why it would be helpful to have the report in full - one would just ring up the guys and ask them not to cash the cheque this week and tell them it would be okay for the following week. I am sure that would not have caused anyone any undue stress. This is a very technical point. Other than that, all of my other questions have already been asked.

My next question is for Ms Walsh, the interim chief executive officer, whom I wish the best success. I suggest that a percentage of the new board be from both genders, whatever that may be. One of the criticisms I have of the FAI is its treatment of women. The women's national team and underage structure should receive equal treatment. That is my point. They should get the same amount of resources. Clearly, they do not, the reason being they do not bring in revenue, and we understand that. However, look at what Croke Park manages to do with regard to ladies' football on the one day of the year it is the biggest sporting event for women. Equal treatment is required. In fairness, the GAA has come a long way but it has not come all the way. We cannot have the national ladies' football team handing over tracksuits in an airport. I hope that the issue of gender equality on the board will be part of governance, and bear in mind women make up 50% of the population. They would give a different viewpoint. Perhaps in some instances, when everybody else is going off and doing something, having more women on the main board and all of the governance committees and making this a policy-----