Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Ross, and I were at the Olympic Games and I attended the Paralympics Games as well. We can all be very proud of the performance of our athletes at Rio 2016.

Sport Ireland and the Department have already initiated a review of the Olympic Games and the Paralympics Games and that will feed into the future distribution of funding which the Government makes available to Sport Ireland. Regarding the specific issues raised by Deputy Brendan Ryan, it would be wholly inappropriate for a Minister and Minister of State in a Department which established an inquiry into this issue in the first place to pre-empt what Mr. Justice Moran will report. We have received commitments from everybody associated with the Olympic Council of Ireland that they will co-operate fully with the Moran inquiry. Indeed, they have already initiated their own investigations internally and have given a commitment that the findings of those investigations will be made available to Mr. Justice Moran. Whatever recommendations emerge with regard to changes, should changes be required within the Olympic Council of Ireland, I believe there will be an appetite for that to happen. Certainly, the Government and the Department are anxious, first, to see what conclusions Mr. Justice Moran reaches and, second, to put a framework in place whereby we can ensure that trust in the Olympic movement in Ireland can be reconstructed.

I agree with the Deputy on one point. Undoubtedly there was damage to the relationship between the public and the Olympic movement.

We cannot lose sight of the fact that the Olympic movement is about more than administration. It is about the athletes who qualified. This year we sent the largest Irish team ever to the Olympics and the Paralympics. They must be celebrated, congratulated and worked with. The Deputy is right that this must be done in the framework of a governance structure that is very clear, open to scrutiny and able to develop a way forward. Mr. Justice Moran's inquiry will provide the blueprint for us to do it.

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