Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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9. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to improve public confidence in the Olympic Council of Ireland after the fall-out from the Rio Olympics; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32786/16]

Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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While our athletes at the Rio Olympics succeeded in doing our country proud, they were let down by the debacle of the president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, OCI, being arrested. In light of the Deloitte report on the OCI, what will the Minister do to restore faith in the organisation?

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I fully recognise the need to maintain public confidence in all State funded bodies including the Olympic Council of Ireland. It is vital that the highest standards of governance are in place across all levels of Irish sport to ensure accountability, fairness and transparency across organisational activities and support the integrity of sport both at home and abroad.

  On 19 August, the Minister, Deputy Ross, and I announced our decision to establish a non-statutory inquiry to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the distribution of tickets for the Rio Olympic Games and related matters. The inquiry commenced on 19 September and is being led by the former High Court Judge, Mr. Justice Carroll Moran.

Under its terms of reference, the Moran inquiry will inquire into the policies, procedures, processes and practices adopted by the Olympic Council of Ireland around the receipt, distribution and sale of tickets and accreditations for Olympic Games. This includes the 2016 Summer Olympics, the 2014 Winter Olympics, the 2012 Summer Olympics and any previous summer or winter games into which the judge wishes to inquire. The terms of reference also allow the Moran inquiry to inquire into any matter that the judge considers necessary, including corporate governance within the Olympic Council of Ireland and the State funding of the Olympic Council of Ireland through Sport Ireland and its predecessor, the Irish Sports Council.

Judge Moran has been asked to present a report, setting out the findings and any recommendations of the inquiry, within 12 weeks of its commencement. The judge has indicated that this timetable may be ambitious and some delay is anticipated.

I ask the Deputy to appreciate and understand that it would be inappropriate for me to make any further comment on matters relevant to the inquiry while it is continuing.

Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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Pat Hickey has been president of the OCI for an incredible 28 years. While he has said he has stepped aside he still officially retains the position while he is under house arrest in Rio de Janeiro, which is equally incredible. We continue to have a major problem with trust in institutions in this country. The average level of trust in four national institutions, Government, business, the media and non-governmental agencies such as charities, is under one in three people. This is very worrying. Of course, who can blame people for lacking trust when one sees the goings-on in the OCI during the Olympic Games? I, like many others, cringed with embarrassment when we should have been cheering enthusiastically for our athletes. It is the Minister's job to help rebuild trust in the OCI. The recommendations in the Deloitte report, as reported, are a good starting point for this task. However, it is clear from stakeholders in the OCI that they believe its president has too much power. This must change immediately. There must also be provisions to ensure that the term of the president is time limited, as is the case in other major national Olympic bodies.

The OCI has no strategic plan, which is incredible. We have an organisation with an all-powerful president that is not working to a strategic plan. That is a recipe for disaster. How can an organisation operate in a transparent manner if it is not being monitored against an agreed plan? In fact, 73% of stakeholders disagreed that there is transparency in the OCI. When the next Olympic Games take place in Tokyo, less than four years hence, the Minister will not have to worry about the athletes. They will do their job and do the country proud. The Minister must ensure that he puts in place a plan to reform the OCI to such an extent that a repeat of the debacle in Rio de Janeiro can never recur.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The Minister, Deputy Ross, and I were at the Olympic Games and I attended the Paralympics Games as well. We can all be very proud of the performance of our athletes at Rio 2016.

Sport Ireland and the Department have already initiated a review of the Olympic Games and the Paralympics Games and that will feed into the future distribution of funding which the Government makes available to Sport Ireland. Regarding the specific issues raised by Deputy Brendan Ryan, it would be wholly inappropriate for a Minister and Minister of State in a Department which established an inquiry into this issue in the first place to pre-empt what Mr. Justice Moran will report. We have received commitments from everybody associated with the Olympic Council of Ireland that they will co-operate fully with the Moran inquiry. Indeed, they have already initiated their own investigations internally and have given a commitment that the findings of those investigations will be made available to Mr. Justice Moran. Whatever recommendations emerge with regard to changes, should changes be required within the Olympic Council of Ireland, I believe there will be an appetite for that to happen. Certainly, the Government and the Department are anxious, first, to see what conclusions Mr. Justice Moran reaches and, second, to put a framework in place whereby we can ensure that trust in the Olympic movement in Ireland can be reconstructed.

I agree with the Deputy on one point. Undoubtedly there was damage to the relationship between the public and the Olympic movement.

We cannot lose sight of the fact that the Olympic movement is about more than administration. It is about the athletes who qualified. This year we sent the largest Irish team ever to the Olympics and the Paralympics. They must be celebrated, congratulated and worked with. The Deputy is right that this must be done in the framework of a governance structure that is very clear, open to scrutiny and able to develop a way forward. Mr. Justice Moran's inquiry will provide the blueprint for us to do it.