Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Department could have done more, by insisting on a governance change, the very change that was sought in the Genesis report regarding the independence of members on the board. We got a document from the Department on 10 April 2019, telling us of changes that were likely to happen that would have pushed out changes on the board to 2022 and 2024. That was very tame, moving at the speed of an iceberg. The board member who is the chairperson of a standing committee or national league executive committee and who has served more than ten years on the board may be re-elected for up to four years. Every one of them would have fulfilled that criteria. This problem did not happen on 17 March. There was a very good piece of journalism by Mark Tighe that opened up a window on this, but this has been a problem way before that. The Department for Transport, Tourism and Sport needs to learn a very big lesson about money and power and making changes where something like this appears. I am disappointed that we have come to this point. Some of the fallout could have been avoided if members of the board with the necessary independence had been in place.

I will now refer to the Jonathan Hall report. There is a relationship between what has happened in FAI and what was said about the importance of the then president of the Olympic Council of Ireland Pat Hickey to the OCI and how it was vital to have this person on the OCI. The Olympic Council of Ireland has been transformed. There is an idea that one person is absolutely central to the organisation. It seems to me that the Jonathan Hall report, which I am sure the Minister has read at this report, was written with one thing in mind, namely to deliver a situation where John Delaney could stay as a member of the UEFA Board.