Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I am surprised the Minister has not received the report. This is a difficult situation and has been the subject of court action, which causes great concern. A great portion of €1 million, which should have gone to sports, has gone into lawyers' pockets. It seems utterly needless that the dispute got to this point and if Just Sport Ireland had been used at a much earlier stage, it would have solved the problem.

What is the value of a report commissioned from one of the bodies involved in the litigation? To what extent can that be objective, with the best will in the world? Given that the role of the Irish Sports Council in this has been the subject of litigation, will the Minister seek an independent report? What is the point in the Minister hearing the Irish Sports Council side of the issue? I do not want to rehash the issue but lessons must be learned about the way the Irish Sports Council interfaces with the governing bodies in sport.

I accept there must be tension between the rights, autonomy and independence of the governing bodies and the need for oversight of how public money is spent by the Irish Sports Council. It seems serious mistakes were made in terms of the relationship between the two and while any interference is not acceptable, it seems there was an unacceptable level of interference on this occasion. I ask the Minister to seek an independent report so that lessons can be learned. It is not a question of rehashing the case or apportioning blame but seeing what changes we can make to ensure this does not happen again.

If the Minister does not know already, she will learn very quickly in this brief that we are only playing at politics compared to sporting bodies. We have a lot to learn in terms of egos, ego trips, empire building and prima donna behaviour. We are in the ha'penny place compared to the world of sport. It is important we find out how we can improve the relationship between the governing bodies of sport and the funding organisations distributing money on behalf of the taxpayer.

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