Mr. Kieran Mulvey:

I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice. I think we might share the same province and the same hinterland as the Chairman of the committee. I thought I put it as plainly as I could last night. I also put it in such terms previously when I spoke directly to the IABA about its engagements with Mr. Walsh and my negotiations with him. The Deputy has asked a direct question. My view on this matter can largely be summarised by repeating that last night I asked the IABA to contact Billy Walsh to give him the contract and the terms we agreed. The Deputy is quite right. That is what the IABA, as the employer, should do. I am not the employer. I am responsible for the funding provided by the taxpayer through the Oireachtas. If the IABA cannot understand what I said last night, we have a real problem. I think I said it as plainly as I could, as people from our part of the country sometimes do. The IABA did not hear anything last night that I had not previously said to it across the table. It allowed this matter to drift. It said it was in negotiations. Then the solicitors on both sides got involved. I know that anyone who has dealt with the IABA in these negotiations, including human resources consultants and legal personnel, have found it to be the most frustrating experience they have ever had. That mirrors my own experience.

The IABA needs to decide whether it wants Billy Walsh. It appears that it does not, given that it has brought the matter to this level. It has allowed this poker game to go to the ultimate point that has been reached by Billy Walsh out of sheer frustration. The president of the IABA told the Minister of State with responsibility for sport last weekend that this matter would be resolved - that everything was all right and that it would be done. We found on Monday morning that it was not done. As I said last night, it is not about the financials because they have all been thrashed out and paid for by the Irish Sports Council on behalf of the taxpayer. Deputy Fitzmaurice is quite right in that regard. It is about all the other indignities that have added to this problem. There were problems in the United Kingdom with regard to high performance. The UK authorities took boxing out of the high-performance system and put it into a dedicated centre in Sheffield. We have a dedicated centre for high-performance boxing in the new institute. That is going to be on the agenda.