Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir Cassells agus leis na Seanadóiri uile as ucht an deis seo labhairt leo faoi infheistíocht an Stáit sa sacar. At the outset, I assure Senators that the Government recognises the importance of investment in football as one of the key participation sports in Ireland. There has been a sustained commitment in that regard by Government, particularly so in recent years when, as Senators will recall, a significant financial support package was put in place which ensured that the FAI remained solvent, allowing it to continue to function as the national governing body for football and to rebuild after the financial mismanagement and subsequent implosion of the association just a few short years ago. It is important to outline the funding that we have provided.

The support package provided for the restoration and doubling of funding for football development to €5.8 million each year from 2020 to 2023, which significantly more than is provided for any other sport national governing body.Additionally, and this point is often forgotten, €7.6 million was provided between 2020 and 2022 towards the FAI's licence fee for the Aviva Stadium.

In total, between the support package, Covid support funding, energy support funding, women in sport funding and other programme funding, approximately €62 million was provided by the Government between 2019 and 2022. That does not include, for example, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which provided nearly €32 million to the regeneration of Tallaght, a substantial proportion of which is in respect of the Tallaght Stadium. It does not include money that has been granted to Finn Harps, for example, or for the design of Dalymount Park. That is a very significant level of Government investment in one sporting organisation.

There have been a number of news stories regarding the FAI in the past few days and I would like to address them. First, on a positive note, as Senator Cassells mentioned, there was a wonderful occasion on Sunday, in the Aviva Stadium, when St. Patrick's Athletic beat Bohemians in the FAI Cup Final. A record attendance of over 43,000 people ensured there was a wonderful atmosphere at a fitting occasion for a showpiece final. I was representing the Government in Belfast at the Armistice Day commemoration and, unfortunately, could not attend the cup final. I understand this was the ninth highest attendance for a cup final in Europe this year. This shows the potential of the League of Ireland. As someone who has gone to League of Ireland games as a committed Drogheda United fan all my life, I am delighted to see the growth in League of Ireland attendances and want to continue to see the league flourish.

There were two other stories in the headlines recently. The first was in relation to the salary of the FAI CEO. As I mentioned, the memorandum of understanding agreed in January 2020 between the then Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and the FAI provided for additional funding to support the organisation and football development to the end of this year, and I have set that out. In addition, the MOU set out a comprehensive range of reform measures, 163 in all, which the FAI was to implement and embed in the organisation over the lifetime of the MOU. Sport Ireland is tasked with monitoring the implementation of those recommendations.

As part of the recommendations, the MOU requires a firm commitment that the remuneration of the CEO will be in line with Government pay guidelines. This means it should be no greater than the remuneration of officers in the grade of Secretary General. That is identified as MOU 35. Earlier this year, Sport Ireland asked a company, KOSI, to conduct an audit to consider whether this condition was embedded within the FAI in 2022. The primary finding of the KOSI audit is that this condition was not embedded in the FAI in 2022. The audit report was sent to my Department last month and was subsequently reviewed and considered by me, the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, and our officials.

We fully agreed with the finding of the audit that the FAI was not in compliance with this aspect of the MOU and set out that we fully expected the FAI to become compliant with the recommendations set out in the audit report by KOSI. Sport Ireland is actively engaging with the FAI in relation to this matter and we understand the FAI has recently written to Sport Ireland to confirm its intention to achieve compliance.

Any decisions with regard to amending or extending the MOU or the provision of additional funding for 2024 or future years, similar to that provided under the current MOU, cannot be progressed in the absence of confirmation from the FAI and verification by Sport Ireland that the recommendations have been implemented.

In relation to other commitments under the MOU, the FAI has generally made very good progress on the reforms required. The Sport Ireland oversight group has formally endorsed the status of the FAI's implementation of 155 of the 163 items from the governance review group report, the KOSI audit and the commitments in the MOU. This represents an implementation rate of 95%. I have also asked Sport Ireland to prepare a full report on the FAI's compliance with the MOU, including in relation to the CEO's salary. We will publish that report in the coming period.

The second issue I would like to address is the vote taken by the FAI last week in relation to gender equality. The current sports action plan 2021 to 2023 sets out a specific target for all national governing bodies, NGBs, to achieve a minimum 40% gender representation balance on their boards by the end of the year. This applies to every NGB. I note the vote taken by the FAI. I understand there is still time for it to take the appropriate steps before the AGM next month to ensure it has met the target. I encourage the FAI and other NGBs which have not done so yet to do so.I remind people that in the case of the FAI, there is a requirement in the MOU of a 50-50 split in respect of independent and football directors and that 50-50 split is required regardless of the number of directors on the board overall.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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It is clear that we want to support football. We made a special effort to reach out to football clubs and get them to apply for sports capital grants. I did that and I know the Senator did so locally as well. I wanted to do this because I want to see clubs benefit from the fund. We will do the same when we open the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF, which is very important.

I have made clear that if the 40% target is not met, there will be serious consequences. That is something on which the FAI and a number of other sports organisations need to reflect. We have made significant progress on that requirement, with 39% of directors now female. Given that it should be 40%, we are almost there. In fairness to the GAA, it has made the administrative change. It has not yet implemented it but it is on the way. The Irish Athletic Boxing Association had scheduled a meeting for last weekend, which did not go ahead but will take place this weekend. I strongly encourage it to do so as well.

What will happen, unfortunately, is that when we announce sports equipment grants, hopefully in the new year, any national governing body that does not have 40% gender balance will only be awarded 50% of the grant. Probably a more accurate way of putting it is that it will be able to draw down only 50% of what it has been awarded.

We want football to succeed. There has been massive investment in the sport, with significant investment, for example, in Tallaght Stadium, which should be acknowledged, and in Finn Harps. The latter was a difficult project which we have pushed over the line. We are waiting on the FAI to get back to us on the issue but we want to see it go ahead. A number of other projects have come to us outlining general plans for the future.

I visited a number of football clubs recently. I have been with Drogheda United and Sligo Rovers and I have an invitation to meet Shamrock Rovers, which I will be more than happy to do. I visited Shelbourne in Tolka Park as well. These are places I have been long before I was ever in politics. I am familiar with this issue as a supporter of the FAI and the sport. To be honest, like Senator Cassells, I spend every weekend at sports games, between soccer and football. I can certainly be described as a grassroots supporter.

We want to make sure the FAI gets everything right, and it has got most things right. If it does that, funding can continue. I look forward to discussions in the coming months.

Regarding the report, I apologise to the Cathaoirleach but there is a very important point to make on the MOU. When this issue came to my desk, I realised it would be a matter of considerable public controversy. For this reason, I decided the best thing to do would be to get a report on overall compliance with the MOU. It is absolutely essential we publish that. This was a public issue when it first arose and it still is. To be fair to everybody, we should see progress but also the work that still has to be done. The oversight in this case, as the Senator mentioned, appears to have been very effective. I thank my colleagues in Sport Ireland and the officials in the Department in that regard.