Pat Hickey, the president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, last night laid the blame for the latest breakdown in relations with athletics unequivocally at the feet of those who administer the sport.

For the first time since 1948, the first of the Olympic disciplines was not represented at the Council's a.g.m. after the OCI's refusal to empower the newly-formed Athletics Association of Ireland with voting rights.

Invitations for the AAI's constituent members - BLE, the NACA and the Northern Ireland Athletics Federation - to attend the meeting as observers were predictably declined, heading off possible trouble within the infant organisation.

OCI officials had apparently held out hope until late in the day that the NACA and NIAF would refuse to follow BLE's lead in staying away but, as the deadline approached, it became clear that this would not be the case.

Hickey, ebullient as ever, said he regretted the impasse but said that the OCI was not prepared to take responsibility for the ineptitude of BLE officials in allowing their Olympic affiliation to lapse.

Criticising The Irish Times and Examiner for their coverage of events leading to the boycott by the three athletics associations, he cited the correspondence which had passed between the OCI and BLE in recent weeks.

Departing from his prepared text, he took exception to statements that an invitation for BLE to attend as a full voting member of the meeting was subsequently withdrawn and the inference that, with or without the co-operation of the OCI, BLE intended to facilitate the inclusion of Irish athletes at the Sydney Games next September.

This was tantamount to waving a red rag to a bull and it evoked a scathing dismissal by Hickey on the basis that the IOC, through the national federation, would be the final arbiter in approving entries.

Speaking from the floor, Jim Bermingham of the Irish Amateur Rowing Union welcomed the formation of a new athletics body but said that the AAI, like all other organisations, would have to conform to rules and regulations.

Brendan O'Connell of the Irish Canoeing Union called on the OCI to spare no effort in refurbishing its relationship with the sport of athletics. "The country doesn't want a repeat of Atlanta," he said.

"The Council had time to sit down and talk with BLE rather than wash dirty linen in public. Nobody benefits from situations like these," he added.

Much of the OCI's agitation, it appears, is based on the lack of communication from BLE, the athletics body they formally recognised, at a time when the unity talks were nearing completion. The OCI's claim is that this omission deprived the new body of expert advice in the matter of affiliation.

BLE contend, however, that the merger talks were purely a matter for the athletics organisations and it was none of the OCI's business until such time as the process was completed.

The bottom line is that the two bodies continue to have differences at the highest international level. Until such time as the uneasy truce between the International Olympic Committee and the International Amateur Athletic Federation improves, the working relationships between subordinates will continue to be difficult.

Elsewhere there was little to excite, although Hickey warmly welcomed the budget announcement that £1 million is to be made available to the Irish Sports Council to assist in the preparation of Irish competitors at Sydney.

He also revealed that, under the terms of a new co-operative scheme worked out with the International Olympic Committee, the OCI would embrace a cultural exchange with the Albanian federation. It is hoped that some Albanian athletes will come to Ireland to prepare for the Games in the coming months and the OCI is helping to source computer equipment to help build up their administrative facilities.

Dermot Sherlock, in his report as national secretary, said he had reservations about the new national drugs testing scheme. "It seems to me," he said, "that it separates authority from responsibility and I believe this to be faulty."

Ronnie Delany, the former Olympic 1,500 metres champion, was one of those honoured at a subsequent reception for members of the 1956 Olympic team in Melbourne.