Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for attending. I also thank the Minister, his Department, the staff of Sport Ireland and all of our colleagues who have worked very hard. I am very impressed by the commitment of everybody to ensuring accountability. However, I have some worries. Who will manage the appointment of the CEO at this time of crisis? Who will sit on the board? Will the old or new board do it? There are significant issues because obviously the person concerned will be driving the organisation in whatever direction he or she decides. Sport Ireland will want to be very careful in that regard.

The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement needs to seize control of the process. Notwithstanding its excellence, using Mazars is not the way to go because it is being paid by the FAI and is really a third party. The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement ought to have its own team to carry out the business or appoint its own team to do so. As pointed out by Deputy Rock or others, Deloitte has serious questions to answer. It is unacceptable that it passed accounts with which there appears to be an issue. The key point which is probably the most important is that everybody at the meeting last night from the FAI knew that Sport Ireland would find out about Deloitte today. They all knew it, but they did not tell Sport Ireland. What happened in the past few hours before Sport Ireland knew about it? Why did the FAI not tell it? It makes no sense. I am concerned about record keeping and book-keeping. Sport Ireland or the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement needs to make sure there will be complete accountability. Protocols must be in place before any of the files can be accessed; otherwise I would have grave concerns.

This committee has shown that in a democracy, it does work. It worked particularly well today because it was clear that the witnesses were accountable to us. It did not work last week, even though the outcome for those who refused to talk or answer our questions was negative. The ultimate issue for me is the need to reform the committee system. Committees should have more powers, which might meaning the holding of another referendum. The power and capacity of committees to compel witnesses to appear or answer questions on serious issues has to be changed. I believe that is what the public wants. This must be framed in a way that provides fairness to all witnesses and ensures due process.

I thank all of the delegates for their attendance and wish everybody a happy Easter.