Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 January 2024
254. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if she is satisfied that reform of the FAI since 2020 has satisfied the terms of the Government MOU of that year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3606/24]
View answerThe Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreed in January 2020 between the Government and the FAI enabled Sport Ireland to restore funding of €2.9 million per annum to the organisation and to provide additional annual funding of €2.9 million for football development up to and including 2023. In recognition of the importance of the continued operation of the stadium that is co-owned by the Association and another sporting organisation, the MOU also provided for a repayable grant to the Association of €7.6338 million towards the stadium licence fee payable by the organisation for the years 2020 - 2022.
The MOU was agreed at a point when there was a very real risk of the Association becoming insolvent. The support provided ensured that this did not happen, and was conditional on the Association implementing urgent and necessary reforms.
Sport Ireland's Governance Oversight Group has formally endorsed the status of the Association’s implementation of 159 of the 163 items from within the Association and Sport Ireland's Governance Review Group Report, Sport Ireland's KOSI audit, and commitments in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This represents implementation of 98% of the recommended reforms.
I have asked Sport Ireland to prepare a full report on the Association’s overall implementation of actions set out under the MOU between 2020 – 2023 and I intend to publish this report in the coming days.
