Committee of Public Accounts to examine 2021 Financial Statements of Sport Ireland

The meeting at 9.30am will be joined by the C&AG, Seamus McCarthy, representatives of Sport Ireland led by the Chief Executive Officer Dr Una May and the Chairman John Foley, and officials from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

During the afternoon session, beginning at 1.30pm, the Committee will consider the minutes of recent meetings, correspondence and other business of the Committee.

PAC Cathaoirleach Deputy Brian Stanley said: “Sport Ireland, formerly the Irish Sports Council, is a statutory authority that oversees, and partly funds, the development of sport within the State. This includes participation in sports, high-performance, anti-doping, coaching and the development of the Sport Ireland Campus in Blanchardstown, west Dublin, which operates under the official name of Sport Ireland Facilities DAC and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sport Ireland.

“The majority of Sport Ireland’s fund is through an Oireachtas grant paid through Vote 33 – Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media and in 2021 it received nearly €158m, which was made up of a recurrent grant of €93m and Covid-19 resilience funding of €65m. It also received €10m in funding during 2021 from the Healthy Ireland programme which is funded from Vote 38 – Health.

“A major area of interest for the Committee is expenditure on and governance of financial support to the Football Association of Ireland from Sport Ireland in light of revelations around the finances of the FAI in recent years. The Committee is also interested in examining grants to national governing bodies of sport, governance issues within national governing bodies such as Cycling Ireland, the Covid-19 resilience scheme, other programme costs and consultancy costs.

“Members will also examine the financial statements of Sport Campus Ireland DAC, with particular focus on the Sports Campus Ireland Masterplan and the National Horse Sports Arena. The Committee looks forward to discussing these issues and related matters with Mr Foley, Dr May and their colleagues.”

The meeting in Committee Room 3 can be viewed live on Oireachtas TV.

PAC is a standing committee of Dáil Éireann which focuses on ensuring public services are run efficiently and achieve value for money. Further information on the role and remit of the Committee can be found here.

Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.