Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The reason I published only the report of the Irish Sports Council on the website was that the council did not make any contribution to the High Court because the case was settled. Therefore, only one side of the case was presented in court, namely, that of Ms Coughlan. However, by publishing the transcripts on the website, her side of the story has been given a full airing. All of that is available on the website as well as the comment of the Irish Sports Council. Out of courtesy I wrote to Ms Coughlan to indicate that the report would be published on the website and I received a reply from her. However, the Attorney General's advice was that we could not publish her report.

I see no value for anybody in reopening this issue. The Irish Sports Council has moved on. I have impressed upon it the importance of dealing with mediation and arbitration in order to avoid legal cases which use up taxpayers' money that could be going to sport. Ms Coughlan says it has also been a painful experience for her. I am anxious to ensure lessons will be learned from it. So far as we can leave that case behind, the best way of protecting other people, other sports organisations and the Irish Sports Council itself is to have proper procedures in place.

See this speech in context