The Cian O'Connor gold medal controversy has given Ireland a bad reputation, the Olympic Council of Ireland admitted today.
Council president Mr Pat Hickey said the saga was being discussed Europe-wide and that it would reflect badly on a number of national organisations as well as on the Irish people.
"It is giving us a bad image," he told the Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Sport and Tourism. "But that's life and when it arises we have to go through the proper procedures."
Mr Hickey said everybody had moved "way too fast" and should slow down and wait for Mr O'Connor to decide how he wanted to proceed.
On the subject of drugs, Mr Hickey said as long as people were alive people would cheat but the focus had to be on weeding them out.
"I know people are cynical but we are turning the corner," he said. "In Athens there were 26 positive tests and 16 no shows - the cheats are starting to realise that the sheriff is in town.
"The Olympic movement is moving in the right direction and we have no worries about that."
Senior OCI members were quizzed by the committee on the Irish performance in Athens.
Mr Hickey said he believed immigrants would make up a large proportion of Irish Olympic teams by 2012. "The standard of wrestling, weightlifting and ladies volleyball in clubs has increased enormously," he said.
"Immigrants are starting to take part and it is very, very good for Irish sport."
Reflecting on the Irish team's disappointing overall performance in Athens, the OCI president said he though Ireland's expectations were too high.
"We are a small country and can't be expected to win medals like our colleagues across the water," he said. "The Olympic Games is a vicious arena and everybody cannot win medals."
Fine Gael TD Mr Jimmy Deenihan asked why so many international consultants were being drafted in to assess what went wrong in Athens, saying such problems could surely be identified by the Irish themselves.
Mr Hickey agreed an enormous amount was being spent on consultants considering how much expertise was available within the OCI.
He also told the committee he could not understand why a council member did not sit on the Irish Sports Council.
"When he was sports minister Jim McDaid put Dermot Sherlock (OCI general secretary) off the council and we have never had anyone on it since," he said.
"So when funding is allocated we are not consulted, and again, we have huge expertise in this area."
The Council said more resources had to be ploughed into the younger generation, nurturing young talent and plucking out potential medal winners at an early stage.
PA