Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Having read the report, I am not convinced that another report will solve anything. We know the issues and what needs to be done. The report presented to me was in the form of a letter from the Irish Sports Council setting out the issues. It attached the proceedings from the court, which I already had but which gave all the arguments made by the plaintiff. Neither the Irish Sports Council nor Athletics Ireland got the opportunity to give their side of the argument in court because a settlement was made. Between the letter and the proceedings from the court, we have the overall picture. We know what was said, by whom and when. Issues have undoubtedly arisen and some which I referred to a few moments ago need to be addressed.

We know what happened and I am not sure we need an independent inquiry to tell us what happened. We must consider the issues to ensure it does not happen again.

See this speech in context