Sport Ireland chief John Treacy will this morning tell the Oireachtas Committee on Sport that it relied on the opinion of auditors Deloitte when it came to the financial health of the FAI.

The organisation, which oversees the handling of State funding for sport, has defended its role in the FAI’s crisis by asserting it is not a regulatory body.

Mr Treacy will appear at Leinster House alongside his colleague Kieran Mulvey and Sports Minister Shane Ross.

The FAI has declined an invitation to attend, citing the “immediate focus” of drawing up financial restructuring plans – a move that has been roundly criticised by committee members.

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On Monday, Mr Ross rejected an FAI appeal for financial support well in excess of €10m and he will provide a further update on the position as regards State support today.

He is also due to meet a selection of stakeholders from the football world later in the day.

There will be another meeting – not involving Mr Ross – where proponents of the plan to split the FAI into two will meet with Government figures.

In his opening statement to the Oireachtas, Mr Treacy will defend Sport Ireland’s role in the FAI troubles by stating that it places “fundamental reliance on the statutory auditor’s signed audit opinion” and that “primary responsibility for any company’s financial statements rests with that company’s management and board of directors”.

Mr Treacy says Sport Ireland “relied on the objective, independent, professional judgment of the statutory auditors”, asserting that the FAI’s statements were given the green light by Deloitte.

“The audit opinion stated that the auditors had not identified any material mis-statements, and that the financial statements, in the auditor’s opinion, gave a ‘true and fair view’ of the financial position of the FAI,” he will add.

“What is now clear from the filing of the H4 notice (by Deloitte) in April, and the restated and revised FAI financial statements (is) that this was not the case.

“Undeclared transactions of serious concern and unrecorded liabilities, for a number of years, only came to full public attention on the recent publication of the FAI’s 2018 financial statements.”

Earlier in the day, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said organisations in receipt of State funding, such as the FAI, should be required to rotate the firm that audits their accounts.

Responding to Dáil questions about the FAI, the Taoiseach said it was good practice for organisations to rotate auditors and board members, especially, if they were in receipt of State funding.

“It is a principle of good corporate governance that organisations shouldn’t be audited by the same people, forever and ever and ever again,” Mr Varadkar said.

“I think there are definitely areas where I think Government can be more active in requiring turnovers of auditors and turnovers of board members as a condition of funding in the future.”

Mr Varadkar was responding to Social Democrat TD Catherine Murphy, who said there were “startling re-adjustments” in the FAI’s accounts.

Sport Ireland commissioned the audit by Northern Irish firm KOSI into the finances of the FAI, which was referred to An Garda Síochána.

Mr Treacy will state that the KOSI audit confirmed that the “FAI spent all taxpayer funding allocated through Sport Ireland in line with approved submissions and for the purposes it was given by Sport Ireland during the period 2015-18”.

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