Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The memorandum of understanding agreed in early 2020 between the Government and the FAI allowed Sport Ireland to restore funding of €2.9 million per annum to the association and to provide additional annual funding of €2.9 million for football development up to and including 2023. The memorandum also provided for a repayable grant of €7.6 million to the FAI towards the Aviva Stadium licence fees for the years 2020 to 2022. It was agreed at a point when there was a very real risk of the association becoming insolvent. The support provided ensured that this did not happen but it was conditional on the association implementing urgent and necessary reforms. On 30 January, the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, and I published a report on the FAI's implementation of reforms under the memorandum. This report shows that 159 of the 163 items from the various governance reports and the memorandum have been implemented. This is 98% of the recommended reforms. The remaining issues related to the implementation of gender equality targets. I am pleased to note that the FAI elected two women to its board last weekend, bringing the female representation to 43%, achieving another key commitment the memorandum. The final tranches of funding for 2022 and 2023 were paid to the FAI by Sport Ireland in December and January and there is no outstanding funding due for those years. Sport Ireland will continue to work with the FAI and all other funded national governing bodies to ensure the best governance practices are implemented and maintained for the benefit of everyone involved in football in Ireland.

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