Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

For the information of the House, I was appalled to see what has surfaced in the past 24 hours. I have today asked officials to draft letters to my counterpart in the UK and also to the broadcasters, Sky and BT Sport, expressing our outrage about this matter. It is completely unacceptable. My heart goes out to the decent volunteers and participants in boxing across the country who put in so much time and effort for their communities. Sport Ireland has no connection with professional boxing but it wants to emphasise that in regard to amateur boxing in this country there is no question whatsoever of any link to criminality.

The danger is that the reputation of Irish boxing may be tarnished by this incident. That is grossly unfair to the large number of people who do great work. It is important to emphasise that. We are taking this very seriously. We are absolutely appalled by this link.

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