The three most senior sporting administrators in the country appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism & Sport this afternoon.
Philip Browne, Paraic Duffy, and John Delaney answered questions from the committee on affairs in their respective sporting bodies.
The former two are relative novices in the field of controversy, and thus John Delaney was the only member of the trio to enjoy the honour of trending on Twitter during the proceedings.
He answered his questions early on as he had to leave earlier.
The preparedness of the TD's asking the questions did not wow the audience watching online. It is fair to say that Delaney was not stumped too often.
John Delaney is like JFK in comparison to 90% of the TD's questioning him. Can't believe I'm tweeting that.
— Mark Horgan (@Younghorgan) January 18, 2017
Catherine Murphy, TD for the Social Democrats, did at least question Delaney on the famous €5 million which was offered to the FAI as compensation for Thierry Henry's thieving hands.
Delaney said this was a "contentious matter" but asserted that the money was fully accounted for.
In terms of the FIFA €5m. It was obviously a contentious matter and a committee decided that it wouldn't be discussed in this house.
That was a decision made maybe a year or two ago when deputy (John) O'Mahony was chairperson.
What I will say is that all that money was properly accounted for and signed off by our auditors. €1m was initially was given in revenue and subsequently the €4m in a later year was given.
John Delaney on the FIFA €5m.
That would be an ecumenical Blatter... pic.twitter.com/qdsY98jrdf
— Newsworthy_ie (@newsworthy_ie) January 18, 2017
Asked about anything and everything, Delaney confirmed he supported the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams. His reasons for doing so were fairly obvious.
If I was being really frank with you, any opportunity that gives Ireland a greater opportunity to get to a World Cup, in theory or principal I would support.
Both Delaney and Browne expressed opposition to the junior minister for Sport's radical plan to introduce a 30% quota of females on the boards of sporting bodies. Sporting bodies would have their funding cut if they fail to meet the 30% target.
Delaney defended the FAI's record on employing women and said he was opposed to "tokenism".
Some of John Delaney's best friends are women.
Sure even his girlfriend is a woman. pic.twitter.com/dGaATIJxiI
— Newsworthy_ie (@newsworthy_ie) January 18, 2017
Browne, meanwhile, said he was opposed to Minister O'Donovan's proposal, implying that it would make it would make it more difficult to find qualified candidates for roles.
The suggestion by the government that it is considering the imposition of gender quotas on sports organisations is a concern for the simple reason that female rugby is still in its infancy and it will be difficult to find suitably qualified female candidates with the accumulated rugby wisdom and skill set to fill such quotas without retreating to tokenism.
Browne added that such "tokenism" would be the "antithesis of good governance."
