Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It pains me to say it, but the Minister has gone native already. There will be no change and the former Minister, Mr. Ross, is enjoying the irony out in the leafy hills of Enniskerry. The MOU says that the offer of the Minister should in no way be regarded as a binding commitment in the context of a contractual agreement etc. and the MOU will be underpinned by a series of relevant legal documents. The reality is State funds, some €212,000 per month since January, have been given to the Aviva Stadium in the name of the FAI, which it is supposed to repay. Under its own constitution it has not approved this at any meeting of its council. Therefore, the first point is the State is now exposed to the repayment of that money. The second is that if the forthcoming EGM declines to give approval to borrow this money then, arguably, the signatory is potentially on the hook but it will not be the FAI because those concerned were acting above their authority in any event.

All the Minister has done is read the same dribble that we are all used to. We all supported the Government supporting the FAI in cleaning it up. Nobody wants it to be cleaned up more than the grassroots ordinary five eighths, but we have shipped in total elitism. A small group of people have designed their version of what good governance is. It is a disgrace.

The Minister spoke about the clubs and the grassroots. Honestly, if he stands over what he said, he does not give a twopenny damn about the grassroots. What we have now is an MOU which has no legal status. The Minister has already started to pay out on it, even though many of the recommendations that he said must be met have not been met. They have not even been formally put to the council yet. The chairman, whoever he is - exceptional, professional, brilliant at his job and above reproach - did not have the authority under his own rules. We sent in two Ministers to sign a letter, presumably at the behest of the Secretary General, which potentially put the State on the hook for millions of euro without even the approval of the organisation itself. If the Minister calls that governance, I fear for the future.

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