Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 15 June 2023

Public Accounts Committee

Financial Statements 2021 - Sport Ireland and Sport Ireland Facilities DAC

9:30 am

Dr. Una May:

It is one of the reasons Sport Ireland emphasises the fact that it is a development agency is that we see that many of the issues arising now are as a result of the changing landscape and the increasing professionalisation. I do not believe that a regulator at this point in time would resolve a lot of these issues. I refer to our experience when we invest the time, energy and support. Occasionally there are issues in smaller governing bodies that do not make the headlines. In those cases, it is important we are in a position to be able to provide them with support and capacity-building opportunities. We have an entire unit dedicated to capacity building. We have a whole programme of governance training. If we were to go down the regulatory road, we would not be in such a strong position to provide those supports. While regulation might result in organisations-----