FAI to appear before Public Accounts Committee today

The Football Association of Ireland will appear before the Public Accounts Committee in Leinster House this morning and members of the committee are set to examine oversight and governance of Sport Ireland and Exchequer funding provided to the FAI.

Representatives of the FAI, including Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Hill, will defend their use of state aid including Covid-19 resilience funding.

During his last appearance in Leinster House before the Sports and Media committee in December, Hill apologised for the "unnecessary and unhelpful distraction" when his pay arrangements led to a Sport Ireland investigation and the temporary suspension of state funding.

The FAI delegation will be led by President Paul Cooke and will include newly installed independent chairman Tony Keohane. They are expected to make the case at the PAC for an rise in betting tax to increase funding for all sports.

However, the committee will want to know details of how Covid-19 resilience funding of €33.7 million was used and distributed by the FAI.

That money was intended to offset turnover losses caused by the pandemic.

During this period the FAI reduced their debt by €20 million.

The payment of €12,000 to FAI Chief Executive Jonathan Hill in lieu of holidays not taken led to a Sport Ireland investigation and state funding being temporarily suspended.

The Chief Executive has been the subject of an internal investigation and claims he didn't seek the payment which contravened the FAI’s own employee rule book.

Members of the committee have requested copies of all internal emails relating to the payment.