Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Pat Hickey has been president of the OCI for an incredible 28 years. While he has said he has stepped aside he still officially retains the position while he is under house arrest in Rio de Janeiro, which is equally incredible. We continue to have a major problem with trust in institutions in this country. The average level of trust in four national institutions, Government, business, the media and non-governmental agencies such as charities, is under one in three people. This is very worrying. Of course, who can blame people for lacking trust when one sees the goings-on in the OCI during the Olympic Games? I, like many others, cringed with embarrassment when we should have been cheering enthusiastically for our athletes. It is the Minister's job to help rebuild trust in the OCI. The recommendations in the Deloitte report, as reported, are a good starting point for this task. However, it is clear from stakeholders in the OCI that they believe its president has too much power. This must change immediately. There must also be provisions to ensure that the term of the president is time limited, as is the case in other major national Olympic bodies.

The OCI has no strategic plan, which is incredible. We have an organisation with an all-powerful president that is not working to a strategic plan. That is a recipe for disaster. How can an organisation operate in a transparent manner if it is not being monitored against an agreed plan? In fact, 73% of stakeholders disagreed that there is transparency in the OCI. When the next Olympic Games take place in Tokyo, less than four years hence, the Minister will not have to worry about the athletes. They will do their job and do the country proud. The Minister must ensure that he puts in place a plan to reform the OCI to such an extent that a repeat of the debacle in Rio de Janeiro can never recur.

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