Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)

I start by thanking the Minister of State for coming in to address this matter himself. It was remiss of me not to preface my comments by saying that if anybody has been affected by these issues, they should follow the formal complaints procedure that the FAI has encouraged people to come forward with, details of which the Minister of State has outlined. I do not raise this matter lightly. Many of us here have children. I quoted extensively from a series of correspondence that I obtained through an individual. The correspondence clearly demonstrates that this was known nine months prior to the "RTÉ Investigates" programme. That in itself is damning. I have written to the sports committee about this and it will be discussed in private session tomorrow. I will seek that representatives of the FAI come in to address the concerns I have raised this evening. I hope to have the support of some of the committee members present here tonight.

My overarching concern is that given that we entrust our children to large organisations like this, it is paramount that their safety is ensured. I will not stray into the realm of individual accusations because I do not have any information pertaining to any individual allegations. I am exclusively concentrating on the FAI's own safeguarding policy which the Minister of State has said his Department is satisfied with. I ask him to ask his officials go back and read it because I quoted it extensively from it. It states specifically that no specific allegation is required in the case of any sexual allegations. It is there in black and white.

I ask the Minister of State to ask the departmental officials if they have the information that I have in my possession. If they do, I think they will have a very different view of what we are discussing here this evening. The Minister of State mentioned Sport Ireland in his response. I would also ask that in any investigation or examination Sport Ireland has done here, the same information that I have in my possession is also brought to its attention because that will also inform its future outlook on this.

I can only ask the Minister of State to reflect on what I have outlined here this evening. I do not do it lightly. I will bring it to the committee tomorrow in private session and I hope representatives from the FAI will come in to address the concerns.

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