Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and wish all of the new Ministers well in their portfolios. It is nothing personal; this is business.

As the Minister knows, the memorandum of understanding, MOU, with the FAI is a Shane Ross production.

His ghost is very much alive as we see. It was very much drawn from the same ether as his failed judicial appointments Bill, where he wanted everybody under the sun to be independent without the appropriate expertise to run the show. Naturally, as a Parliament we prevented that proceeding. I am sure the Minister played a part in that himself and it is important that he did. Thankfully, that ridiculous and absurd legislation did not proceed.

It seems, however, that this memorandum of understanding, MOU, is proceeding. I am a bit confused whether the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan is in charge or whether it is the responsibility of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin or the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers. In any event, I took some solace and encouragement from a media report last week when the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, first took up his post in the Custom House. The media report said he assembled the assistant secretaries, the Secretary General and all the senior staff and told them how things were going to be. I was very encouraged and delighted to see that approach.

Meanwhile, however, in the Minister, Deputy Ryan's, Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and whatever else is in there, the Secretary General assembled the Ministers and told them how things were going to be, because they signed a letter telling the chairman of the FAI they would stand 100% behind the MOU. This is the same MOU that wants the same ridiculous absurd independent majority to run football, which puts the FAI as an outlier in the world so that people can pull the strings from afar. Instead of the corruption of the past, it will be a new form of corruption. Spurious allegations are going around at present about tenders being given for Covid-19 testing and how the chairman, the interim CEO and the deputy CEO were put into their respective positions. Of course, all three were members of the visionary group.

I have raised many questions about this. Before he was Taoiseach, the Fianna Fáil Party leader suggested to me that if in government, we would review the MOU. I agreed 100% and promoted it in the media as such but the engine had not gone cold in the Minister's car when he went into the Department to ensure the Shane Ross lunacy is going to continue.

Why did the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, not sign the letter if he was in charge? Can he answer that question? It prohibits good hard-working directors who served in the past, who stood up to the previous regime and were thrown under the bus under the eyes and blessing, no doubt, of Sport Ireland, from serving on any committee in the future. The last thing we want is a bit of expertise around the place that knows about football.

In any event, the main crux of this issue is I believe the chairman acted beyond his authority in signing this on behalf of the FAI. Now the Minister has gone ahead and has lent €212,000 per month. Three payments have been made thus far, in January, February and March, perhaps illegally and perhaps exposing the State to never getting paid again. Article 3(8) of the constitution of the Football Association of Ireland states that the board of management shall not at any time borrow any sum in excess of €1.27 million without the express sanction of the council in line with section 158 of the Companies Act 2014.

Here is the situation. We have lent out, thus far, €632,000. As the FAI did not give authority to the chairman to borrow that money, theoretically, we are losing money; we might never get paid.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Thank you, Deputy. Before I call on the Minister, I note you made reference to the constitution of the Football Association of Ireland. Whatever about that, we have our own well-established procedures here. You have made reference to three individuals who can be readily identified. I assume on your behalf that no aspersions are being cast in any way on the three identifiable individuals. I trust you are not using the privilege of the House to cast any aspersions on anybody outside the House. That would be unlike you.

Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

To clarify, privilege is a vitally important rule within the House and sometimes it must be used. I mentioned nobody by name but as State funds are relevant to this, I am well within the rules to highlight the three people in question. Absolutely there are no aspersions about them as individuals, without prejudice to them or to impugn their good characters in any way. However, their appointment and how it was carried out was beyond what I would call good governance.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

That is a valid point to make as long as it is clear we are not casting any aspersions on them personally. I call the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy MacSharry for raising this important matter. The Deputy will recall that since the scale of the governance of financial mismanagement within the FAI became clear over the past year, the FAI has been in a financial crisis the likes of which has never been faced by an Irish sporting body. On 30 January, the then Government took the decision to ensure the survival of the association by approving an agreement to participate in a joint funding package for the FAI. The MOA which was signed by the then Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross, and Mr. Roy Barrett, chairperson of the FAI, was an important and necessary measure in enabling the Government to participate in that financial support package.

The MOU enabled Sport Ireland to restore funding to the FAI of €2.9 million per annum and to provide additional annual funding of €2.9 million for football development up to 2023. It also provides for a repayable grant of just over €7.6 million to the FAI to pay its license fee for the Aviva Stadium up to 2022.

The MOU sets out the conditions for receipt of this funding including necessary constitutional and council reform and corporate governance and financial reforms. The conditions were accepted by the FAI and the other relevant stakeholders, namely, UEFA and the Bank of Ireland. Sport Ireland remains in communication with the FAI in matters relating to its governance and financial management. It has established a process to oversee and review adherence by the association to the commitments given in the MOU.

The FAI has committed to implementing certain recommendations on governance reform and Sport Ireland expects to be in a position to restore funding to the association when these commitments are verifiably honoured. To be clear, the conditions in the MOU must be implemented in full. There will be no renegotiation of the terms of the MOU. The FAI must convene an extraordinary general meeting, EGM, this month to implement rule changes to provide for an increase to six independent directors on its board and for those members of the FAI council with more than ten years' service to stand down. If these rule changes are not implemented Sport Ireland, will be unable to disburse any funds to the FAI, including the Covid-19 support funding approved by the Government last month.

The Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Catherine Martin, and the then Minister of State with responsibility for sport, Deputy Calleary, wrote to the chairman of the FAI last Thursday to confirm that the new Government would not reopen any discussion on part of the MOU agreed by the previous Government. We confirmed that the conditions for governance reform were essential to rebuild public trust and to enable the disbursement of the funding package set out in the MOU and we confirmed our support for Sport Ireland to liaise with the FAI and to verify implementation of the governance and financial control requirements as agreed in January.

While we respect the autonomy of the national governing bodies of sport, we cannot tolerate a situation where the mismanagement of a funded body brings its very survival into question. The FAI board and council ultimately failed in their duty to the association and its members, the grassroots clubs and volunteers, to hold the executive leadership to account. This is why the Government had top step in to provide additional funding to safeguard the future of Irish soccer and the livelihoods of more than 200 people employed by the FAI. We could not ignore the findings of the KOSI auditors that the FAI in its previous form was not fit to receive public funding. We will be monitoring carefully the progress on reform and if there are any concerns we are seeing a return to the old FAI, we will not hesitate to suspend funding once again.

Irish soccer, like all sport in Ireland, has faced an unprecedented challenge this year and the return to sport will not be easy. That should be the focus of everyone involved in Irish soccer and I encourage the FAI to make all the necessary reforms without delay.

Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | 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.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We are all concerned and looking to support the grassroots and the future development of Irish soccer. The way that has to be done is for the MOU to be agreed in full. That will require the FAI to convene an EGM this month to implement rule changes to provide for an increase to six independent directors on its board and it will require those members of the FAI council with more than ten years' service to stand down. That has to be delivered.

That is the message coming from the Government, not from any one Secretary General or any one Minister or the other. That is the collective agreement. It is what needs to be done with the MOU. It is important the FAI gets that message in clear, direct terms because it is critical.

The success of the FAI is critical to all of us. It allows us not only to have our international team, but also to have every other team right down. Thirty or so teams play in international competition representing us. The development of the clubs right across this country and the development of every aspect of soccer is something we want to see succeed. The MOU is critical to that. Central to that is the creation of a board, as has been agreed. The FAI will have to do that before we can make progress on anything else.