Mr. Kieran Mulvey:

To me, the issue of governance is paramount. If one does not have governance, the role I am obliged to perform for this committee and the Oireachtas falls. Most problems start with governance. If governance is not proper and right, it infects an organisation all the way down. I am very conscious that it is hard-earned taxpayers’ money at stake here. We always have to strike a delicate line between oversight and interference. This is one of the issues around which the Irish Sports Council in the past may have had some difficulties. When we see the system of appointment of chief executives, high-performance directors or other staff not done in an appropriate and transparent fashion, it is very hard for us to get involved in the employment relationship, even though we may be funding the outcome. It is a delicate balance.

Do we put people on the boards of the national governing bodies? That has not really arisen. Up to 95% of the national governing bodies operate effectively and have very good boards and chief executives. They have made monumental changes in the past five years. We put on courses on governance, its requirements, codes of practice, as well as financial and reporting accountability. We need to retain that balance. It is only when we encounter an issue such as that which we addressed this morning that it is highlighted. I do not want to put that in the context against the 95% of organisations with which we do not have a problem.

We also audit organisations each year. We will select several organisations for audit. They do not know it. We tell them they will be audited in a particular year, in three-year cycles.

That is how we get through all the national governing bodies of sport, NGBs, and it is done by our independent auditors, who we procure by public advertisement for that purpose. It is a separate reporting mechanism. I take the point that sometimes it would be good to have a presence on the board, but we might then run into issues of autonomy, interference and so on. It is a question of achieving balance and it is problems like these that bring the issue to the fore.

On the question of the national soccer team, the phrase "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" comes to mind. I lived in Northern Ireland for a while and saw the situation there at first hand. One must always keep in mind that one person's sport is another person's antipathy. Whereas we have had major achievements in terms of co-operation in rugby, hockey, cricket and other sports-----