Mr. John Treacy:

I will shorten my contribution and will not read out my full statement. I am joined on screen by Paul McDermott, who is our director of high performance and national governing bodies. He is very involved in all of our activities. I will start off with the McLaren report. I am not sure if members of the committee have had an opportunity to read it. I have a copy with me today and I encourage members to read it. It lays bare the scandal of boxing judging at the Rio Olympic Games. It underlines that unfair judging cost two of our boxers, Michael Conlan and Katie Taylor, legitimately won medals. Can the members imagine what it is like for an athlete who gives his or her life over to training to be judged out and told three days ahead of time they are going to lose a fight? It is absolutely remarkable. That is what happened in Rio. Richard McLaren has done a fantastic job with this report. It is worth reading. This gives the committee an idea of the position of international boxing and international boxing governance during the Rio games. It has not got much better.

It is fair to say Irish boxing was not in a good place after the Rio games. The high performance director, Bernard Dunne, has led a revival of Irish boxing at international level. Notwithstanding the challenges presented by Covid-19, Irish boxers enjoyed a very successful Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Under the leadership of the IABA’s performance director, Bernard Dunne, the high performance programme delivered not only gold and bronze Olympic medals, but also several outstanding performances throughout the Olympic cycle, including the qualification of seven boxers for the Tokyo Games itself. That was a magnificent achievement, considering the position the sport of boxing was in after the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. As the Taoiseach said on Friday at Dublin Castle, Irish Olympians lifted the nation during the summer, and that was badly needed. The impact was very much led by the personality of Kellie Harrington. It was a fantastic performance all around and I pay tribute to all our athletes who got ready for the Olympic Games in Tokyo under difficult circumstances. They were going to countries where Covid-19 was prevalent to compete in events to allow them to qualify for the Olympics. I pay tribute, therefore, to all the team and to the Olympic Federation of Ireland, OFI, for the fantastic work that was done to ensure that we had a successful Olympic Games in Tokyo.

I pay tribute as well to the high performance team in the IABA, led by Bernard Dunne, whom I mentioned, Zaur Antia and John Conlan, as well as all the boxers. Rarely have sportspeople achieved so much in such adverse circumstances. Similarly, we must also compliment the executive and board of the IABA for facilitating and encouraging the work of the high performance team over the last three years, which was led by Ciaran Kirwan and Fergal Carruth.

It is fair to say that every four years there is noise within the system. Central council elections are coming up at the end of November, so again we have noise in the system in that regard. It is our strong view that it is time for Irish boxing to adopt modern governance practices. In this regard, Sport Ireland has initiated a governance review at the request of the IABA. This work has commenced. It is well underway and it is being conducted by Brian MacNeice. Sport Ireland considers it important that this review take into account feedback from the grassroots of Irish boxing. The review is currently at the consultation stage and this process will last for three or four weeks. The full report should be completed before the end of the year. It is important to note that it will be an entirely inclusive process and all stakeholders will be given an opportunity to provide input. This will include the clubs, the provincial councils, the central council, the board and staff members. It is imperative that any recommendations deriving from the review are fully implemented. It is well known, however, that not everyone within the Irish boxing community is fully supportive of the work of the IABA and the high performance team. It is time for that conflict to end.