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The academic Christopher Booker wrote a well-known book more than a decade ago saying there are only seven basic plots in all story-telling.
I have not had a chance to look up the categories this morning, but I’m sure one of the seven is the Delaney-Hickey narrative arc: that’s where a larger-than-life administrator who dominated an Irish sporting organisation departs under a cloud.
When it happens, serious and all as it is, it pans out as a comedy of errors.
The fate of Delaney and the FAI board was essentially sealed during the appearance of a delegation last week when the former chief executive maintained a policy of near-silence over the course of an eight-hour hearing, and the minimalist approach of his colleagues suggested an organisation that was both defensive and inept.
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The tactic backfired spectacularly. It has all unfurled dramatically within the past 48 hours. The entire board will now resign by its AGM in July at the latest (and I suspect they will not last that long).
There are also a lot of investigations and inquiries, and it’s hard to keep up with them all. There is an investigation by consultants Mazars into “issues of concern” that have been raised about the association - namely the unusual temporary loan given by Delaney to the FAI in April 2017.
The terms of that investigation have been considerably widened in the past few days to look at other issues including expenses, credit card usage and third-party transactions. That inquiry could take up to a year.
Separately the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement is conducting an inquiry that stems from the non-reporting of the Delaney loan. That is also the basis of auditors Deloitte notifying the Companies Registration Office of a breach of the Companies Act by the FAI, surrounding a failure to keep proper records.
Separately, Grant Thornton has also been in the FAI since April 2nd, examining its financial records. The governing body Sport Ireland is also going to open its own financial audit of the FAI. It’s getting hard to keep up with it all.
Yesterday Sport Ireland and Minister for Sport Shane Ross were in at the committee. John Treacy of Sport Ireland agreed with Catherine Murphy that Delaney’s style was very similar to that of Pat Hickey, who fell on his sword after the Olympic Council of Ireland got embroiled in a ticketing reselling scandal at the Rio Olympics.
“They are very similar, they are very similar, strong personality leading the organisation. That is one of the issues we’ve discussed with the FAI in recent times,” said Treacy.
There has been a debate that had Delaney chosen to engage fully with the committee last week and explained the loan rather than do a poor impression of a Trappist monk, the outcome might have been different. I’m not so sure if a change of tactics would have saved him.
The €100,000 loan was problematic, as we see now from the raft of investigations, and no amount of explanation could make it go away. We have many reports this morning. Here is our page one report on possible criminal sanctions and our inside report.
Broadband plan will require very broad wallet
Here’s something that puts the bill to restore Notre Dame cathedral and the national children’s hospital in the ha’penny place. It’s the national broadband plan, which was once going to cost €500 million but now will cost the taxpayer €3 billion.
Leo Varadkar confirmed as much in the Dáil yesterday. As Marie O’Halloran reports. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/national-broadband-plan-could-hit-3bn-varadkar-tells-dáil-1.3862599.
He insisted the first plan was to connect 11,000 towns and villages while this one is about connecting 540,000 homes and businesses.
Is that any different? By my maths, to reach 540,000 the 11,000 towns and villages would have to have an average of 50 premises, which does not seem much.
The other unusual aspect of the plan is there was only one bidder for it in the end, a company headquartered in Boston.
“It was extremely negligent to continue the process with just one bidder,” said Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley. “The obvious outcome has arrived - the Government has backed itself into a corner, and the remaining bidder is holding all the cards.”
Dooley pointed out the project is costing double a more recent estimate of €1.5 billion, despite being delayed by several years.
It’s a big investment. As Pat Leahy reported several months ago, the take-up for the last plan was really low. There is also the danger that the network might be quickly overtaken by a new technology (such as 5G) in a rapidly changing environment.
For its part the Department of Communications, has said a single bidder at this stage in the process, while not ideal, is not unusual given that it also happened for most of the process in the UK.
Because of this, the department has said it is carrying out additional analysis and detailed due diligence is being carried out on the bidder’s submission in the context of a single bidder procurement.
It has also said the current level of take up for the 300,000 premises covered by Eir is in line with the trajectory anticipated by Eir in their commercial plan.
While 5G, which has been heavily backed by the independent European election candidate Peter Casey, sounds like a feasible solution, it is new and not tested and would require the erection of hundreds of mast.
The tender for the broadband plan was platform neutral but all those who bid proposed fibre. It seems it is, for all its expense, the favoured technology right now.
Best reads
Simon Carswell on a fascinating clash between US congress members and British Brexiteers over the past few days.
“The visiting US congressional delegation had a forceful and at times heated encounter with pro-Brexit UK hardliners as the American politicians rejected claims that the Border was a ‘concocted’ issue,” he reports.
Another gem from Marie O'Halloran. If Donald Trump visits us, we will find out (probably) by tweet.
Miriam Lord's take on yesterday hearing of the Oireachtas Committee on Sport. Great Intro!
“People used to think that FAI stands for the Football Association of Ireland, but thanks to a newspaper story and a particularly shocking performance by its representatives at an Oireachtas committee, we now know it stands for Feck All Information.”
Fintan Drury has an opinion piece in which he says that board resignations comprise only the first stage of what needs to be done in the FAI.
Playbook
The big event today is the visit by a delegation from the US House of Representatives led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the Dáil.
The veteran US congresswoman from California met Taoiseach Leo Varadkar yesterday and will address the Dáil this afternoon. The discussion will inevitably include Brexit and the Good Friday Agreement.
Elsewhere, this morning the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr Katherine Zappone, will hold a news conference to coincide with the publication of the 5th Interim Report from the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes.
Dáil
10.30: Parliamentary Questions: to Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe
12.00: Dáil 100 event in the Dáil Chamber with Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives, making an address to deputies. The Californian Democrat has been very strong on how paramount the Good Friday Agreement has been in the context of Brexit.
14.00: Later than usual, Leaders’ Questions.
15.47: Statements post-European Council meeting of 10th April - yes, more Brexit stuff.
18.20: Private Members’ Business where the Social Democrats and the Green Party group bring a motion on Transport.
20.20 Statements on the Report on the Independent PwC Review of Escalation in National Children’s Hospital Costs. Simon Harris will again be in the spotlight.
22.46: Dáil adjourns.
Seanad
10.30: Order of Business.
14.00: Motion regarding Directly Elected Mayor Plebiscite Regulations 2019.
15.00: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017 - committee stage. The filibuster of the legislation continues - 100 hours of debate now and counting.
17.00: Private Members’ Business: Perjury and Related Offences Bill 2018 brought by Senators Pádraig Ó Céidigh, Victor Boyhan, Ian Marshall, and Michael McDowell.
17.00: Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2016.
Seanad adjourns.
Committees
9.00: The Committee on Justice and Equality will talk about gambling control and regulation with David Stanton, Minister of State, and Prof Crystal Fulton, an expert on regulation. The regulator has been long-promised but not yet delivered.
9.00: Select Committee on Health discusses the Health and Social Care Professionals (Amendment) Bill 2018 with Minister for Health Simon Harris.
17.00: The Select Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation is at committee stage of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2018. Pat Breen, Minister of State will attend.
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