Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Finland on the appointment of Sanna Marin as the youngest Prime Minister in Europe. Interestingly, the Finnish Government's coalition now has five women leaders who are all under the age of 40. It will be interesting to see how business in the Finnish Parliament progresses in the coming months.

I also want to mark the passing of Paul Anthony McDermott, a wonderful barrister and a great author. He will be sadly missed for his interviews on RTÉ in which he made complex matters simple for people. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

There has been much discussion about the FAI in recent days and months. I received a communication last night that I find deeply disturbing because it would appear that not everything is out in the open. A number of questions relating to the FAI remain unanswered, such as how much has the association received in grant support for the senior league, licence compliance, underage development, disability football, football for the deaf, women's football and numerous programmes Were these moneys used for the purposes they were intended or were they used to pay wages and service debt? The maths do not stack up. For example, the Irish Football Association in Northern Ireland received its annual licence compliance grant and distributed it to clubs to assist them. In the case of the FAI, I understand that board members were never told how much the FAI received or where the money went.I also understand that the regional development officers who were part paid by local authorities, were employed to promote the game and assist clubs, but again, I understand that this was never done. The development officers were forced to sell summer camps, training camps and other activities that would enhance the FAI's revenue stream. Development programmes within the FAI fell to clubs, parents and sponsors, which is an absolute disgrace. I am informed that everything within the FAI in the past ten years was about revenue generation to service debt that was unsustainable. Now football at all levels is on its knees and will take a long time to recover. There is now a major concern that regional development officer will be laid off as local authorities will no longer fund those programmes. We need assurances on the matter.

I am informed that the FAI had a rule that all potential club sponsors must in the first instance be passed by FAI headquarters. Once the FAI headquarters became aware of a potential sponsor for a club, people from headquarters - I am not sure who they were - would approach the sponsor and seek to do a deal on corporate seats or whatever it took to get the money directly into the FAI and away from the club for which it was intended. What has been happening in the past ten years is that the FAI used every club, player, coach, parent and everybody else as a revenue source while putting nothing back into the game. At one stage, I understand that the financial director tried to resign but was told he would have to stay on to present the financial report at the AGM. He resigned while everybody was away in Armenia. Rumour at the top table was that he was assured the FAI had met its target of selling corporate seats in the Aviva Stadium so the FAI could draw down money from the bank. This target had never been met. He felt his integrity was compromised and he was not willing to stand over a set of accounts he did not believe in.

What went on in the FAI has destroyed people's faith in the sporting world in Ireland, in particular when we see how some senior people walked away with greatly enhanced moneys in their pocket while clubs are starving. This person goes on to speak about the League of Ireland clubs which had to put in between €15,000 and €25,000 a year for legal fees, referees' fees, fines, licensing fees, etc. A number of sponsors put in more than €50,000. How can the League of Ireland say-----