The Olympic Council of Ireland will have “no choice but to cooperate” with a Government Inquiry into the Rio ticket scandal, Transport Minister Shane Ross has said writes Irish Examiner political editor Daniel McConnell.
Arriving in Dublin Airport this afternoon, Mr Ross said he expects to announce a full Independent Inquiry tomorrow, in the wake of the arrest of OCI President Pat Hickey.
Welcome home Minister @Shane_RossTD! pic.twitter.com/0MqzJGr74P
— Juliette Gash (@JulietteGash) August 18, 2016
With relation to the ticket touting scandal, Minister Ross said he wanted to keep his options open but he thought that an internal inquiry was “off the table”.
He is due to meet with the Attorney General Maire Whelan and his officials to discuss what format an inquiry will take, but insisted that it does not have to wait for matters to conclude in Brazil to commence.
He revealed details of the meeting he had with Mr Hickey in which he said he was “stone-walled”.
Mr Ross said he was left “shattered”.
About the pending inquiry, Mr Ross said the most important thing was that it was independent and he did not really care whether it was led by a Judge or a Senior Counsel.
Mr Ross was pressed about reports in this morning’s Irish Examiner which said the Government is considering pulling the funding from the OCI.
He said it has to be considered re-routing the funding, which this year amounted to €520,000, through another body.
He said his only concern was that funding for athletes would not be impacted.
Mr Ross said he had not yet spoken to the Taoiseach about the controversy, but he had discussed the controversy with senior officials.
He said the Hickey affair combined with Michael O’Reilly doping scandal have “overshadowed” Ireland’s Olympic Games.
The Minister for Sport Shane Ross has said Irish athletes have carried a really strong, shining torch for Irish Sport.
Speaking after touching down at Dublin Airport a short time ago, Minister Ross said Irish Sport and Irish athletes, haven’t let us down.
When asked about events of recent days, he said what’s been happening has been ‘around the administration and other things like that’ – but not the athletes.
Referring to the recent legal email to Mr Hickey that suggested Minister Ross needed to be ‘put back in his box’ he said that he “understood the assessment” but that it was “very unusual legal advice.”
