There will be “serious consequences” if the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) cannot meet the 40 per cent gender quota, the Minister of State for Sport Thomas Byrne has said.
Mr Byrne said this was something that not just the FAI, but a “number of other sport organisations” need to reflect upon.
The junior Minister was speaking in the Seanad on Tuesday, where the provision of State funding to the FAI was raised by Fianna Fáil Senator Shane Cassells.
It emerged last week that Sport Ireland had delayed funding to the FAI amid concerns about governance and reforms.
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FAI chief executive Jonathan Hill reportedly erroneously received as much as €20,000 in commuting expenses and payment in lieu of untaken holiday pay, which he has since agreed to repay.
Under a memorandum of understanding between the association and the Government, following a €30 million bailout in 2020, the remuneration of the FAI’s chief executive should be no greater than that of a secretary general.
Mr Byrne said when the issue of payments to Mr Hill was brought to his desk, he realised it would be “a matter of considerable public controversy” and decided to commission a Sport Ireland report on overall compliance with the memorandum of understanding and it was “essential” this report would be published.
Separately, last week the FAI general assembly voted against a proposed constitutional change to allow two additional women candidates join the board.
The FAI is required to have 40 per cent female representation on the board by the end of this year, with a further risk to Government funding if this target is missed.
Mr Byrne said he noted the vote taken by the FAI and that there is “still time” for it to take the appropriate steps before its annual general meeting next month.
“I have made clear that if the 40 per cent target is not reached, there will be serious consequences. That is something that not just the FAI but a number of other sports organisations need to reflect on as well,” he said.
“We have made significant progress on that — about 39 per cent of directors are female overall at the moment. It should be 40 per cent, so we are almost there … What will happen, unfortunately, is that when we announce equipment grants, I hope, in the New Year, if the national governing body — that is national level — does not have 40 per cent gender balance, it will only be awarded 50 per cent of the grant, or it will only be able to draw down 50 per cent of what it has been awarded is probably the more accurate way of putting it.”
Senator Cassells said the FAI had stated that Mr Hill was not to blame for the overpayments and that it was “a technical financial interpretation”.
“There is another institution of this country that was mired in controversy this summer because of one man’s interpretation of technical financial arrangements,” Mr Cassells said.
“That controversy nearly sunk RTÉ and it needed a €40 million bailout today. The last time there was a technical financial arrangement between the FAI with the CEO [chief executive], he [John Delaney] was loaning his employer a €100,000 bridging loan and the resulting controversy nearly sunk the organisation. Again, the State needed to bail out the FAI. This cannot be another exercise of sweeping it under the carpet.”
Senator Cassells also said that the FAI had pulled out of a planned appearance before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media next Wednesday, in relation to capital structural support for grants.
“Surprisingly, they have decided they’re not coming next week – they can’t – maybe we would have been discussing something else,” he said.
