Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy knows I cannot possibly comment on current events because Sport Ireland is clarifying them and will report to me. As I said, I will release whatever material Sport Ireland sends to me to the Deputy and anyone else who wants it, hopefully by the end of the week.

As the Minister of State correctly informed the Deputy, Sport Ireland is responsible for governance. I understand the FAI has established a governance committee whose remit is to ensure the association is compliant with the code. The Deputy will know that on Monday, 4 February, members of the FAI ratified the introduction of eight-year term limits for board members. Sport Ireland understands this to be a maximum of two four-year terms. As part of the rule changes and in order to avoid an immediate loss of experience and expertise, it agreed that any board member who is a chairperson of a standing committee or the national league executive committee and who has served for more than ten years on the board may be re-elected for up to four years. Sport Ireland supports the adoption of the governance code and views the introduction of term limits for directors as an important step for all funded bodies on the journey and transition to adoption of the governance code by 2021. As I said, I would prefer if the FAI had been fully compliant by now but it will be fully compliant by 2021.

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