Mr. Paul McDermott:

Obviously, the loss of the performance director so close to the Olympic Games was not what we would have wanted to see. In high performance we have a performance director-led model, so a performance director is in place. He is not a coach; he runs the programmes right the way through the pathway and is the leader of that programme. To have taken the leadership away or to have lost the leadership close to an Olympic Games was less than ideal. Cycling Ireland put in place a variety of interventions to mitigate that loss, but the loss was less than ideal. We believe that Cycling Ireland has high potential in respect of high performance. We believe that cycling is a core sport, whether at European, world, Olympic or Paralympic levels. The performance director Cycling Ireland has now is a high-calibre individual, and we believe he can lead that programme into sustained success. However, they are expensive programmes - there is no question about it - and sometimes that can raise an eyebrow. However, if we want to be successful on the track or the road or with the Paris cyclists, the organisation has to be led by a suitably qualified person with the right coaches and so on. We hope that that person, in any programme, can be sustained right the way through an Olympic or a Paralympic cycle and that we will not lose him or her close to a games because that is not fair on the athletes. Their ability to reach their potential is reduced at the high point of their sporting careers. That was unfortunate, but it happened for all sorts of complex reasons. Certainly, it is not something we would like to see in any environment.