Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I rise today to concur with the comments of Senator Malcolm Byrne yesterday on the Irish Athletic Boxing Association, IABA. We need an independent review into that organisation. This issue has been brought to this floor on numerous occasions and has been spoken about at committees. A review was conducted by the same person who did the previous review a number of years ago. It was asked for at short notice by the IABA because it was being brought before the Oireachtas joint committee to query its governance. Despite the organisation telling us there was nothing wrong with what it was doing, none of the 64 recommendations in that review was referred to the organisation itself or the management. We need a new review, or, as has happened in other organisations, we need to put a new management structure in place in the organisation and those who are there should be removed. We have had issues with insurance, sports equipment, grass and procurement. Nearly 30 people with hundreds of years of service were suspended by this organisation and had to go to Sport Dispute Solutions Ireland to defend themselves, at a cost of tens of thousands of euro. They won that case but all the costs were awarded against them because it came into the public domain that they had won. I do not think that is the right way for anyone to appeal anything. The people who suspended them in the first place have no costs because they are being paid out of the coffers of the IABA. That is not acceptable. This organisation has been constantly in the headlines over the last 20 years for the way it is being run, yet the same people seem to be there. I am very disappointed in the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, and his comments when the review came out. Within 24 hours he was on the national airwaves basically threatening funding to clubs if they did not accept the recommendations. Recommendations should only be taken on board if they are made independently and that is what needs to be done.