Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 39 and 40 together.

I have received the report from the Irish Sports Council, ISC, referred to by the Deputy. It is my intention to place the report on the Department's website, subject to legal advice, when I have fully considered the issues contained in it. I will also be shortly meeting with representatives of the ISC and take the opportunity to discuss the report with them.

As I have previously stated in the House, from a legal perspective, I have no role in the day to day operations of the ISC. Under section 9 of the Irish Sports Council Act 1999, the council has to have regard to Government policy and to comply with any general policy directive which may be given by me as the Minister but it is not under my control. The council is established as a corporate entity with legal personality and is responsible for its own activities.

I have no plans at this stage to launch an independent investigation into this issue. What is important is that we learn how we can avoid this happening in the future. There is a need to learn from this issue about the relationship between the ISC and the national governing bodies of sport, particularly the interaction between them and whether other processes should be used. I am always in favour of using mediation processes in the first instance where they are available, irrespective of the difficulties, and at all times we should avoid recourse to the courts if possible. I consider that there is great potential for the Just Sport Ireland initiative, which was established by the Federation of Irish Sports in 2007 as a specialised independent arbitration and mediation facility. At my first meeting with representatives of the Irish Sports Council, I made it clear to them that I believe that mediation should always be used in the first instance to avoid the type of circumstances we see in this case.

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