Public Accounts Committee:  'Huge confusion' over the role of Sport Ireland

Committee member Alan Kelly TD said that certain aspects of the organisation’s oversight and opinion was “seriously worrying”.

Sport Ireland CEO Dr Una May

THE role of Sport Ireland (SI) – as the body which distributes Government funding to sports organisations – needs to expand, to allow greater oversight and regulation of Irish sports, a Public Accounts Committee hearing was told Thursday.

Committee member Alan Kelly TD said there was “huge confusion out there” about Sport Ireland’s role, and added that certain aspects of the organisation’s oversight and opinion was “seriously worrying”.

CEO Dr Una May and Chairman John Foley, along with a number of senior executives from the organisation and officials from the Department of Sport, appeared before the Oireachtas working group, which examines the delivery and expenditure of public money.

SI’s appearance before the PAC was primarily to discuss its latest Financial Statement (for 2021) as well as the ongoing situation at the FAI, which it said has adopted 90 per cent of more than 160 recommendations made in the wake of the 2019 financial collapse.

In its Financial Statement SI recorded an income of €179.6m – including €167.6m in Oireachtas Grants (public money) and €10m in dormant grants – with an expenditure of €175.3m, with a surplus of €4.25m.

A key topic which emerged at the hearing focused on the role of SI within regulation and oversight, following the FAI scandal and other controversies at Cycling Ireland, Olympic Federation of Ireland and the Irish Amateur Boxing Association.

In relation to Sport Ireland’s position as the “chief funder” of Irish sport, Deputy Kelly said there was too much confusion about its role, and added that he was concerned that it had no opinion on the FAI’s recent launch of an €863m funding drive.

“There is this no-man’s land where we see issues in relation to a whole range of organisations and then you’re seen as a regulator almost, when you’re not,” said Deputy Kelly.

“I believe that Sports Ireland’s role has to extend, while not necessarily being a regulator in the truest sense of the word, but given that you’re the chief funder of many organisations, it has to expand.

“There is huge confusion out there as regards to your role.” 

The newly appointed Chairman of Sport Ireland John Foley said that from a governance perspective, the body oversees compliance, but agreed “we’re not a regulator”.

When asked if he thought that role needed to change, Foley responded: “It’s something that myself, the Board and the executive would have to look at.

“Even though we are the development agency, we do have a lot of power in the sense that we are the funding agency, insuring that proper compliance is at play and that is something that we can achieve.” 

On the FAI’s plan to seek €863m (mainly through public funding) for grassroots and League of Ireland facilities, Una May said that “as part of our development role, we encourage governing bodies to be ambitious and be innovative”.

“The strategy that they launched was just that – it was an ambition, a strategy – we have not been asked for an opinion from a point of view that we have not seen a business case behind the matters,” she explained.

“We saw that as an ambitious and forward-thinking proposal.” 

When Una May was asked by Alan Kelly to offer an opinion on the plan, she responded that the role of Sport Ireland was not about facilities.

“I don’t really agree with you on that – this is another example of confusion – that is your role, your role is development and you can’t develop anything without capital,” added Deputy Kelly.

“How you can say it’s not your role - you have to have an opinion, and to be honest with you, if you don’t have an opinion it would be seriously, seriously worrying for me and I think your answer there is worrying because you should have an opinion.” 

Catherine Murphy TD, questioned whether the Department of Sport recognised that there is a “regulatory gap in sport” to which Una May pointed out that the body “is not waiting for a scandal to happen before we address these things”.

Una May said that Sport Ireland carries out more than 30 audits across sports today.