Gavin Cooney reports from Leinster House

THE PRESIDENT OF the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) Paul Cooke says his “confidence has been challenged” in CEO Jonathan Hill over the circumstances that led Hill to receive payment in lieu of holidays not taken, which began a chain of events which led to the suspension of State funding to the football body.  

Hill today explained that he did not request the holiday payment, but was inadvertently granted to him because the FAI’s former Finance Director misunderstood a “throwaway line” made by him on the topic. 

Hill said the finance director then pursued the issue without Hill’s knowledge, to the point the money was granted. 

Under the terms of the State’s bailout of the FAI, the CEO’s remuneration must not exceed that of the secretary-general of a government department. It emerged last year that Sport Ireland had frozen funding to the FAI following an audit which found Hill’s remuneration to be €20,000 above the permitted threshold, partly due to his being granted cash in lieu of holidays not taken. The money was subsequently paid back by Hill, and funding has since been restored. 

At an Oireachtas sport committee meeting in December, Hill said he “did not push it and I was not asking for” for the holiday payments. Hill said he was not privvy to the process, and the payment was granted by the former chairman Roy Barrett. Hill said the issue arose when a junior employee requested as to whether they could receive payment in lieu of holidays not taken, and from there it was suggested that Hill may also be given a similar payment. 

Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon dismissed this in December as a “cock and bull story”, and requested to be sent the email chain from which the payment first originated. 

That email chain was submitted to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), albeit it arrived after the agreed deadline, and just 45 minutes before today’s meeting was scheduled to start. Many of the emails were also heavily redacted, a fact criticised by PAC chairman Brian Stanley. 

FAI chairman Tony Keohane apologised to the committee for the late submission of the documents, saying it was because of a delay in clearing the documents from a legal point of view. Keohane said there was no intention to “disrespect” the members of the committee. 

In his opening statement, CEO Hill then shone further light on how he came to receive the money. He explained he was initially contacted by a junior employee to seek whether they could convert untaken holidays into cash, a practice which is against the FAI employee handbook.

Former finance director Alex O’Connell was copied to this email. Hill replied to say he approved of the idea to grant holiday pay to the junior employee, and then added what he describes as a “throwaway line” in relation to his own holidays days. 

This “throwaway line” was redacted in the submitted emails, but Hill read it out when questioned. 

“‘Can you negotiate the same for me please!?’” 

Hill said this was intended as a joke, and not a request for the money. He then said that finance director O’Connell “evidently regarded this as a request”, and passed the issue on to the former FAI chairman Roy Barrett. Hill said he was not party to subsequent discussions about the issue with Barrett, O’Connell, and people director Aoife Rafferty. 

O’Connell and Rafferty were invited to attend the meeting but neither were present. TD Alan Dillon said questioned their absences, saying they were “key witnesses”. FAI chairman Tony Keohane said the FAI believed the delegation present were the most appropriate to explain the situation. He rejected Dillon’s assertion this was a “misjudgement” on the FAI’s part. 

The holiday money was then granted to Hill by chairman Roy Barrett in March of last year. The whole of the FAI board only became aware of the payment on 1 November, when it emerged the payment would lead to a breach of the bailout agreement. 

TD Paul McAuliffe called this an “extraordinary situation”, and repeatedly asked president Paul Cooke whether he had confidence in Hill. Cooke eventually conceded his confidence in Hill has ” been challenged by the events”. Tony Keohane said he retains confidence in Hill, but admitted this episode was a “slip-up.” 

The FAI said the redaction of the emails was made on legal advice to protect the identity of the junior employee. PAC Chairman Brian Stanley said the committee has rarely received emails so heavily redacted, and TD Alan Dillon claimed the level of redaction – including the time and date of the email – was a strategy of concealment on the FAI’s part. FAI board member Catherine Guy rejected this characterisation as “remarkably unfair”. 

Asked by Alan Dillon as to whether he believed Hill has “misled” the Oireachtas Sport Committee in December, Keohane said no, saying he had provided further clarity today. 

“It has regrettably taken the spotlight away from the good work the organisation has done,” said Keohane on the payments issue. 

It also emerged during the meeting that the FAI used “just under one million euro” of their Covid relief funds to pay what the FAI described as an “isolated legacy commercial item”. The terms and conditions of Covid relief funding forbade any money being paid toward any legacy debt payments. Sport Ireland said they are assured all of the FAI’s Covid relief money was used appropriately, having audited the FAI’s use of the funds. 

The FAI had hoped to discuss their proposal to raise the betting levy to 3% to provide funds for investment into the game, but were not afforded the opportunity.