Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The basis of this correspondence relates to the sports committee's engagement with the FAI before Christmas, and our engagement with representatives of the FAI about undeclared payments to its CEO, Jonathan Hill. During our engagement there were some gaps in the description of how these payments came about. There were certainly witnesses, who were not present, who could have answered questions about what members put to both the former chair of the board of the FAI and its current CEO. On the back of that and the agreement by the Committee of Public Accounts to extend an invitation to the FAI to respond to these payments, I felt it important for us to invite the HR director and the former finance director of the FAI to join our discussions on financial management and governance within their organisation. Further to that, it is important that the committee ask for the emails that detailed the exceptional circumstances under which an agreement for payments of holidays in lieu were made with the former chair of the board, Roy Barrett, its then former director of finance and the HR director who was explicitly told at the sports committee that there was an agreement and emails exchanged. This issue would certainly put to bed the issue of credibility surrounding these payments, who instructed that they be made and who had oversight on them.