James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you Chairperson. I appreciate you allowing me to raise this matter with committee members and the clerk. I wish to raise an item of deep concern to the public accounts committee in relation to the ongoing financial and regulatory issues in the Football Association of Ireland. The information that has now entered the public domain has made clear that urgent questions regarding the memorandum of understanding between the Department of sport and the FAI require immediate scrutiny by the public accounts committee. Section 35 of the memorandum of understanding between the FAI and the Government states that the chief executive's salary is capped at that of Secretary General. It has now transpired that the current CEO was paid in excess of €280,000 in 2021 and 2022. As part of this analysis, the Covid resilience funding needs to be included in our examination. It is worth noting that over €60 million of Government funding was provided to the FAI in the last four years. Included in this is €33.7 million in Covid grant funding. I urgently request that the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media comes before the PAC and that the FAI be invited to attend along with officials from Sport Ireland and other relevant organisations.