James McDaid, the Minister for Sport, held at least one surprise when he announced the make-up of the new National Sports Council (NSC), the first with statutory powers, in Dublin yesterday.
From a situation in which membership was pitched at seven, the figure had unexpectedly expanded to 11 by the time of the formal announcement, a development which is understood to have happened in the last week.
Among those added to the list are Tony Ward, the former Ireland rugby player, Ronnie McBrien, Peter McLoone and Ann Tate, Pro-vice Chancellor of the University of Ulster whose inclusion is designed to improve cross-border co-operation.
Ward's nomination, together with those of Maurice Ahern Patsy McGonagle and Mary Davis, others with proven track records in sport, will undoubtedly heighten the profile of the council. Yet it is difficult to escape the image of a lightweight body which will lean heavily on the expertise of chief executive John Treacy.
The bill establishing the council enjoyed a relatively smooth passage through the Oireachtas with few amendments. In the event those amendments, dealing with the non-elitist element of sport, appear to have distorted the numbers in the final selection.
Responding to this criticism, McDaid said there was an acceptance that sport was geared too much to the elitist area and that 98 per cent of the people who would benefit from the workings of the first statutory council did not come within this ambit.
"All the people nominated are high achievers in life and I wished to bring those achieving qualities to sport," he said. "The council's role will be to plan and support the development of Irish sport.
"Our aim was to try and take politics out of sport, in as far as possible. There will probably always be an overlap, but I believe we have made a good start in this direction."
As anticipated, the new body will be chaired by Patrick O'Neill, former chief executive of Avonmore Foods, who pledged to protect the "indefinable essence which has made involvement in sport such a good thing over the years, but which has become somewhat tarnished of late."
McDaid said that new legislation also provides for the setting up of an anti-doping committee and that this group will be chaired by Dr Conor O'Brien. The costing of this key element of the council, has been put, somewhat conservatively, at £360,000 out of a total sports budget of £39 million this year.
The Minister described his relationship with the Olympic Council of Ireland as fragile and conceded that problems remain to be overcome. He stressed that the incoming NSC would assume responsibility for funding national federations and that a separate allocation would be made shortly to the OCI.
McDaid brought some light relief to the proceedings when, stressing the support of his Cabinet colleagues, he paid particular tribute to Bertie Ahern and Charlie McCreevey.
"It helps when you have a Taoiseach and Minister for Finance whose spiritual homes are Croagh Patrick and the Curragh, I mean - the Curragh and Lough Derg, sorry Croke Park and the Curragh."
As ever, his enthusiasm was infectious. Now it remains to be seen if it translates into a new deal for those expecting greater State investment in sport.
