Sport Ireland's chief executive John Treacy has confirmed his organisation had no knowledge of a "bridging loan" to the FAI by former chief executive John Delaney or that the FAI were paying Mr Delaney's rent.
Sport Ireland received a letter this morning from the FAI saying they are currently conducting a review and will not be able to provide his organisation with further detail until the review has been completed.
Mr Tracey says he is disappointed by the timing and the content of the letter, and will be informing the FAI as such in a reply.
"The letter does not provide any explanation, the board of the FAI has not provided any legitimate reason why it cannot provide any explanation," Mr Treacy said.
"We still await any explanation, we will ask for the terms of reference and ask for assurance that we will be consulted as part of that review and a full final report will be submitted."
"We're aware cash flow is an issue for them, and that would be well known within sport," Mr Treacy said in reply to Catherine Murphy of the Social Democrats who queried what, if any, idea Sport Ireland had about the loan.
"We gave the FAI 50% funding this year, and a second payment of the 25% at the end of March, so we have no idea why the loan was given or why they needed it.
"We have an investment that we put into the FAI and it's a sustained investment over a period of time, taxpayer money goes into it, so the viability of those programmes is critically important to us.
"We know they have debts at the Aviva (Stadium) and are meeting those requirements, so we know it's not easy either."
More to follow...
- PA
