The name of Sport Ireland is splashed across the Irish media at the moment. The civil war at the IABA has come to a head, and their failure to adopt the changes recommended has led to John Treacy, Sport Ireland's CEO, threatening that funding may be cut should these changes not be made by June 30th.
Treacy appeared on Newstalk's Off the Ball tonight to speak about that issue, but also answered questions pertaining to the second news story they are involved in this week: Brendan O'Sullivan's failed drugs test.
It was reported in the most recent edition of the Sunday Independent that an inter-county footballer from a prominent county had failed a routine drugs test in 2016. It was inadvertent; the player had ingested a banned substance in a contaminated supplement. They elected not to name the player.
Later that day, Kerry released a statement confirming the identity of the player was Brendan O'Sullivan. They also added the detail that the failed test occurred after the 2016 League final, and that he has already served his suspension. They also said that they would make no further comment until Sport Ireland delivered their full report, known as the considered report.
Among the myriad questions raised by this story is the delay in the reporting of the failed test. More than a year passed before the news was made public by the Sunday Independent, in which time the player had been given, completed a suspension, and returned to play.
One of the reasons behind the delay that have been cited in recent days is the fact that O'Sullivan pursued an appeal process.
That would not explain the delay since O'Sullivan began serving the second part of his ban once he had finished the apeals process. The case was settled by February 26th, when O'Sullivan began the second stage of his suspension.
Here is an edited transcript of Treacy's conversation with Joe Molloy of Off the Ball addressing that very issue:
Joe Molloy (JM): Why has the considered report taken so long, when you consider he has served his ban. He served it in two parts, and started the second part of his ban on the 26th of February. Why has it taken so long to get the considered report out? that seems an overly long time.
John Treacy (JT): These are people who do it on a voluntary basis. they are legal people, highly qualified legal people, that are doing it in their spare time.
JM: The people who write the report are voluntary?
JT: Yes, the people who write the report are voluntary. They are highly respected legal people.
JM: I would have assumed they are employed by Sport Ireland.
JT: It's minimum really, in terms of what we pay. It's almost voluntary, let's put it that way.
JM: And that means they can work at their own pace?
JT: Yes. Again, these are things they consider very seriously as well. Like any legal judgement, they give it a lot of time, they give it a lot of consideration. And they do a splendid job.
JM: And not to put words in your mouth, but if they were paid a higher fee, would we get the report sooner?
JT: Well, that's not the model we are using. We depend on these people to put their hands up to hear these cases. We wouldn't want to go down that route, it would be very expensive.
Treacy also confirmed that they would not have named O'Sullivan before the publication of the considered report had the Kerry County Board not done so first. He did not know why Kerry took the decision to do so:
I don't know the answer to that question. Unless the whole process was completed, or if someone else mentioned the name, we would not have mentioned the name until the considered report.
Listen to the full slot on the Newstalk website.
See Also: Paul Kimmage And Marc O'Sé Slug It Out On Radio Over Failed Drugs Test In The GAA
