Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Good morning to all of the witnesses before the committee. My first comment is on Mr. Keohane's apology for the late arrival of the documentation. I welcome the trail of emails that has been provided to us. It is something that was requested before Christmas by the Oireachtas joint committee. As the lead speaker here this morning, I want to say there is a great sense of frustration. This committee comprises TDs and we all finished voting after 10 p.m. last night. When we arrived back here this morning, the first time we saw the opening statements and the emails was at 8.45 a.m. The staff, who have been here for all of that time, are under severe pressure to try to get them to us. We are trying to read redacted emails and thread them together. By the way, they have been presented to us in reverse order of the timeline. It is very difficult to string them together or have a coherent understanding of what is happening. There is a long-running tradition in the Committee of Public Accounts that when organisations provide their documents late, we often go on to find out there is information being hidden from the committee. The FAI has put itself in this suspicious position because of providing the information late. I accept it is difficult. I know there was a request from it to defer this meeting but, as the Cathaoirleach has said, it was a long-standing invitation.

We appreciate that the FAI is here and that it is willing to engage with us. I wanted to speak about the 98% of the recommendations that have been completed. I would love to speak about the development of Dalymount Park and all of the great work going on in grassroots football. I presume the witnesses have provided this evidence because they believe that before they ask about spreading the betting tax, and I support this concept, there must be a credibility issue. The FAI was asked something very specific at the Oireachtas joint committee. Given that it has provided this documentation and information at the very last minute, I want to explore this issue first, although it was not my intention this morning. I wanted to speak about all of the Covid supports and other issues.

At the Oireachtas joint committee, there was a suggestion that the overpayment in regard to Mr. Hill was not something directly in his control. However, from the emails provided to us this morning it is very clear that the request for holiday pay came from him. Will Mr. Hill address the concern that either the Oireachtas joint committee was misled before Christmas or that Mr. Hill did not provide the full version of events? It does not seem to tally with the evidence before us whereby Mr. Hill specifically requested the payments.