A NEW date must be found for a meeting between Bernard Alien, the Minister for Sport, and officials of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) following the postponement of yesterday's planned talks at the Department of Education.

The Minister said that the OCI had requested a deferral of the meeting some days ago because its president, Pat Hickey, was on holiday.

He had no indication when Hickey would be available, but since Allen is due to start a fortnight's holiday at the weekend, it is unlikely to take place before the end of the month.

Allen did meet officials of Bold Luthchleas na hEireann (BLE), the other party involved in some acrimonious scenes during the Olympic Games in Atlanta, as scheduled yesterday.

Before the meeting, Allen had said he proposed to be positive, but he made no attempt to disguise his dismay at the factional squabbling which attracted so much bad publicity during the Games.

I believe it all reflected badly on Irish sport," he said. "I was present at one of the press conferences at which grievances were aired and I didn't much like what saw and heard.

We were all out there representing Ireland in our different ways, and I felt very uncomfortable when approached by members of the international press corps after the conference."

Allen also warned that funding for sports organisations such as BLE and the OCI next year would be based on recommendations of the new sports review group.

He told The Irish Times that he has asked this group to investigate more focused" funding of all such organisations. He felt this would lead to "major changes in how such organisations would be funded in the future.

He explained that the funding for 1996 had already been allocated to the organisations which, be pointed out, were autonomous and structurally beyond his control.

The report which I commissioned from the Sports Council is due to be published in the autumn, and it is my intention to implement some if not all of the recommendations.

"The current structure is very fragmented and I am putting people on notice that funds provided by Government must be spent effectively."

Also, in the wake of the various claims and counter claims made by the rival parties there have been threats of litigation in recent weeks, but the Minister is not, apparently, impressed.

I want to make it absolutely clear that I will not allow any money provided by my Department to be used to fund litigation eases," he said.

Allen also said he had told BLE that he was "quite disgusted by the sideshow in Atlanta". He had outlined his "regrets" on the matter, which he said had nothing to do with the proper roles of either BLE or the OCI.

The delegates presented their view of what had happened at Atlanta, but Allen said he was "not going to be the apportioned of blame" where either organisation was concerned, and once again emphasised that what was important now was the future, and the welfare of the athletes, to whom both sides had a primary responsibility.

After a meeting which lasted for more than hour, BLE issued the following statement "Bord Luthchleas na hEireann, represented by Liam Hennessy (national secretary), Michael Quinlan (treasurer) and Chris Wall (international secretary), today met, at his request, the Minister for Sport. Bernard Allen, to discuss events in Atlanta.

"The representatives of the Bord are very pleased with the positive nature of the outcome of these discussions and the constructive manner in which the meeting was conducted.

The Bord now faces into preparing for Sydney 2000 and other major fixtures, confident of the ongoing support of the Minister and his Department."