Fergus O'Dowd, chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Transport, Tourism & Sport set to host the Football Association of Ireland on April 10, has expressed the committee's intention to request a specific guest-list of people from the association they wish to speak to.

Whereas the FAI have proposed a list of attendees geared toward discussing the running of the League of Ireland and their High Performance programme, O'Dowd explained that the committee will instead request FAI attendees more closely associated with finance and governance: interim CEO Rea Walshe and members of the association's board among those being sought.

"The FAI have advised us in their letter to us on the 18 February," O'Dowd explained, "they name certain people who are going to come before us next week."

"John Delaney, Fran Gavin, Rea Walshe, Karen Campion and their High Performance Director, but I'm of the view that they haven't given us any person who is responsible for the governance of the organisation.

"Hopefully the committee will agree that we'll have Donal Conway in, Eddie Murray, the chairman of the legal and corporate affairs Padraic Treanor, as well as the new interim Chief Executive.

"We want to set the agenda in terms of accountability. They didn't offer any members of the board who have oversight of governance and we want them in because that is where we can ask questions."

Speaking on Wednesday's OTB AM, O'Dowd expressed the committee's intention to work within the broad confines of their remit as determined by Sport Ireland's charter.

"I go back to the Sport Ireland issue," O'Dowd stated before quoting from their charter: '...appropriate arrangements are in place for the overall governance and management of the organisation.'"

"That's a key point. You can't say we're only talking about €2.9 million (in reference to the government funding provided to the FAI through Sport Ireland), you have to talk about the whole organisation, full stop, in my view."

Prior to the FAI's appearance before the committee next week, Sport Ireland are due at the Oireachtas later this afternoon.

"They are the vehicle by which the money is passed and the due diligence on that money is done by Sport Ireland," O'Dowd stated.

"So, we have them in first because of the controversy that arose and we will have clarity today following their visit to our committee as to the criteria they used, how they actually operate their money, how they invigilate how it's spent.

"We'll be talking to Sport Ireland about how they operate with all sports organisations. They have a common application form that everybody fills in and then the diligence they do on that, and also the concerns that they have about the €100,000 check I believe was sent by Mr. Delaney to the FAI.

"We have concerns about that, and clearly we want to hear more about that and what they're going to do about that, if anything."

We have Sport Ireland in first because of the controversy that arose and we will have clarity today following their visit to our committee

Crucially, O'Dowd expressed his intention to chair a committee that would drive a hard line of questioning: "We are absolutely determined to get an outcome that is best for everybody. We don't want grand-standing or any of that bullshit for want of a better word. We want straight talk and straight answers, and that we are accountable in our process."

Furthermore, he expressed a desire for the committee to perform in a manner that will make such results possible.

"We act on behalf of the Dáil, of the people who are elected in the country," stated O'Dowd, " and it's our job to make sure we do due diligence on all of the bodies that come before us."

"We have to be seen to be fair, we have to be seen to be objective, so [with regards to] today or next week, it's nothing other than a professional assessment of what is going on, what are the issues, where's the accountability, what are the questions and, obviously, we want the answers."

With a specific investigative remit regarding the governance of Ireland's sporting organisations, O'Dowd drew a clear distinction between the performance and structure of this committee, and those that came earlier: most notably on the issue of the manner in which the committee asks its questions, and the attendees answer them.

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