On 8 June, Sunday Independent journalist Mark Tighe wrote an article with the headline, "FAI ‘too slow’ to act over allegations of former national team manager’s behaviour towards female footballers". The article alleged a number of things. The first was that the FAI agreed a financial settlement with its former director of public relations to keep details of his complaints from becoming public. The second was that despite the FAI stating publicly that it only learned of the allegations in early 2024, its former director of public relations made what he thought was a protected disclosure, alleging that it knew of these concerns in May 2023. This is important because the person at the centre of all these allegations was allowed to coach in the period from May 2023, when the former chief executive queried who he was, the point at which he was stood down by the association in March 2024.

My concern here is safeguarding protocols and whether they were adhered to. Having seen the same evidence as that of the journalist, I have serious concerns about the FAI's actions and have written to the chair of the sport committee, the Minister for sport and the FAI to that effect.

Is the Government and Sport Ireland satisfied with the time lapse between the matter being brought to the FAI's attention in May 2023 to the standing down of the coaches at the centre of this controversy in 2024?

I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for raising this very serious and important issue. It is important to detail the timeline of events and steps taken by the Football Association of Ireland regarding these allegations. As the Deputy said, and as is my understanding, an internal email was sent by a former FAI CEO in May 2023 regarding rumours relating to a former coach and alleged historical inappropriate behaviour.

This is the subject matter of a current Garda investigation and it would be inappropriate for me to comment in any greater detail than that other than to say that once the FAI received the formal complaint in January 2024, it acted swiftly and contacted An Garda Síochána and Tusla in accordance with mandatory reporting requirements and its own safeguarding and child welfare regulations. Following the revelations, the FAI introduced an anonymous reporting mechanism to allow players and others to flag concerns and report inappropriate behaviour and to raise a concern to-----

Thank you, Taoiseach.

-----an independent complaint-handling firm. I will raise this matter with the Ministers for sport and for children, obviously.