BRIAN STANLEY TD, the chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), says the FAI’s decision to submit a heavily redacted email at late notice to the committee is “an insult to the public.”
The FAI were invited to a meeting with PAC yesterday, before which they were asked to submit an internal email chain which led to CEO Jonathan Hill receiving payment in lieu of holidays, a practice forbidden by the FAI employee handbook.
The €12,000 payment led to Hill’s pay exceeding the threshold permitted under the FAI’s State bailout agreement, and funding was frozen until the money was returned.
The FAI did not submit the emails to the FAI by the agreed deadline, and were sent at 11.30pm on Wednesday night, meaning some committee members did not see them until 45 minutes before the meeting. The key email was almost entirely redacted.
Having previously told an Oireachtas Sport Committee that he did not ask for the holiday payment, Hill explained yesterday that he received the money because a former finance director misinterpreted a joke on Hill’s part.
Hill explained the situation further under questioning. He was initially emailed by a junior employee, who requested that their untaken holiday days be converted to cash, owing to exceptional circumstances. Hill said he approved this, and said he added a “throwaway line” at the end of the email in relation to the 12 untaken holiday days he had in 2022.
Hill said the joke was, “Can you negotiate the same for me please!?’”
The former finance director Alex O’Connell was copied to this email, and Hill said O’Connell interpreted the joke as a formal request, who then set it in motion by bringing it to former chairman Roy Barrett.
This line was redacted in the email submitted to the committee, despite the fact Hill was prepared to read it into the record. The FAI explained they redacted the email under legal advice to protect the identity of the junior employee.
Speaking to reporters outside of the committee room, PAC chairman Brian Stanley criticised the extent of the redaction.
“In relation to the fully redacted email, it’s a cock and bull story”, said Deputy Stanley. “It’s an insult to the public, never mind the committee. It’s an insult to the public to produce an email like that. If it is to protect a junior member of staff, that’s fine. You don’t want names of junior members of staff being kicked around in public. They are doing what they are told. But that [name] simply could have been redacted. But to hand in an email with simply a logo on a page, it’s an insult to the public and it’s not good behaviour from an organisation that’s going to put its hand out for €517m.”
The FAI are seeking €517m from the government over the next 15 years to invest in the country’s football infrastructure, and Deputy Stanley says the FAI’s reputation is problematic.
“That is a significant amount of money and I think it puts a huge onus on the department and Sport Ireland to ensure there is proper accountability and proper governance and full transparency in how that is accounted for”, he said. “I think in the FAI’s situation, because of recent enough history, it’s fair to say that the reputation would not be wonderful or pristine. I think that there is a particular onus on them to do that.”
Deputy Stanley was also frustrated at the fact two invited witnesses – Alex O’Connell and the FAI’s people and culture director Aoife Rafferty – did not attend. FAI chairman Tony Keohane told the committee the FAI decided the delegation present were appropriate to address the issues raised.
“It’s a bit like the RTE situation, it’s the missing people”, said Deputy Stanley. “If you are missing people, part of the story can be missing too. But I think that you can see the threads running through where the deficiencies are in terms of financial controls and oversight. The fact that they are not here, it’s a pity from their point of view as well, because they have a story to tell. It’s a pity they are not here to do that. I think the public, who would be looking in, would benefit from that.”