Irish Olympics scandals are ‘a great shame’, Minister claims

The admission by boxer Michael O'Reilly that he may have unintentionally taken a prohibited substance and the allegations of illegal sales of Olympic Games tickets by an Irish man were "a great shame" for Ireland, Minister for Sport Shane Ross has said.

Mr Ross said the headlines coming out of Rio were “very disappointing for Ireland”, but that “we should put that behind us now and we should look to the future, and look to medals being won by other [Irish] boxers next week”.

Mr O’Reilly (23) was said to be on his way back to Ireland on Wednesday, after the Olympic Council of Ireland confirmed he would not compete in Rio following his admission that he “unintentionally [took] a supplement which may have contained a banned substance”.

Mr Ross said he had to be careful about what he said in relation to the matter, due to inquiries by Sport Ireland.

He said his department will be watching these inquiries very closely.

Mr Ross also said he wanted to be “kept informed of the progress of the inquiries being made by the Olympic Council of Ireland into alleged illegal sales of tickets in Rio.

“We are going to leave it to the authorities to carry out their own inquiry in Rio - obviously there is a police inquiry.

“It is embarrassing. But let’s forget about it now for the time being and go full-speed ahead looking for medals next week.”

Investigations

Mr Ross said he was “communicating with the Olympic Council of Ireland” and asking “to be kept in the loop” on the progress of their investigations into the alleged ticket sales.

“It is important the Olympic Council of Ireland be held as accountable as anybody else,” he said.

“If necessary, we will carry out an investigation of some sort,” he said.

Meanwhile, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said the ongoing controversies in Rio were overshadowing the efforts of our sporting stars.

He said the ticket touting scandal is “not appropriate and does not reflect well on how we want our Olympians to be projected across the world”.

Mr Donohoe said Mr Ross had put in place the right steps to deal with these issues.

The Olympic Council of Ireland earlier said it was investigating how an Irish man arrested in Brazil was allegedly selling Olympic Games tickets earmarked for the organisation.

Kevin Mallon was picked up at a hotel near the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, along with a translator, last Friday.

On Tuesday, Brazilian police said they had recovered more than 1,000 tickets, believed to have been destined for the Olympic Council of Ireland, which were being sold for more than face value.