{"id":41163,"date":"2025-09-24T18:53:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T18:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/41163\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T18:53:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T18:53:07","slug":"dail-committee-questions-why-fai-didnt-act-on-concerns-before-documentary-on-alleged-abuse-was-aired-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/41163\/","title":{"rendered":"D\u00e1il committee questions why FAI didn\u2019t act on concerns before documentary on alleged abuse was aired \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Football Association of Ireland<\/a> should have acted sooner when concerns were raised in 2023 about the alleged abuse of female players by a male coach in the 1990s, according to members of the joint Oireachtas committee for sport. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a time-lag between complaint and action which I think is inexcusable,\u201d said Fianna F\u00e1il TD P\u00e1draig O\u2019Sullivan during a three-hour hearing in Leinster House on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

In response, the FAI chief executive David Courell told the committee that An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na were approached in January 2024 following a formal complaint from the women involved in the documentary \u2018Girls in Green\u2019. <\/p>\n

The award-winning RT\u00c9 Investigates programme revealed widespread allegations of inappropriate behaviour by male coaches when it was aired in July 2024. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Oireachtas FAI hearing – As it happenedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not a concern [in May 2023], it was a rumour,\u201d said Courell. \u201cAs soon as we had an approach from the women involved [in January 2024] we took swift decisive action.\u201d <\/p>\n

In response, Fine Gael Senator Evanne N\u00ed Chuilinn said: \u201cThe difference between concerns and complaints is a red herring. It was more than a rumour and you know it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hearing also heard that, earlier this year, the Sunday Independent published internal FAI emails indicating that senior management were aware of a journalistic investigation into the allegations in May 2023. <\/p>\n

Kirsten Pakes, the FAI\u2019s child and safeguarding manager, replied \u201cno\u201d when asked by N\u00ed Chuilinn if she was aware of the \u2018Girls in Green\u2019 allegations at that time. <\/p>\n

When Aoife Rafferty, the FAI director of people and culture, was asked if she initiated a public relations response before informing Pakes of a safeguarding case, Rafferty responded: \u201cI am not able to comment on that form of communication as it is part of an ongoing garda investigation.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIs this the answer we are going to get for everything?\u201d responded N\u00ed Chuilinn. <\/p>\n

When Rafferty was then asked to explain an email sent to colleagues on May 5th, 2023, when she stated \u201cthat definitely keeps us safe for now\u201d, after a draft press release on the allegations had been prepared, she replied: \u201cI am really sincere about not impacting an ongoing garda investigation. I am happy to answer that question when the investigation is complete. I do believe we have created a level of trust where people can come forward.\u201d <\/p>\n

In response to Fianna F\u00e1il TD Malcolm Byrne wondering what is the difference between a \u201cconcern\u201d being raised in May 2023 and a \u201ccomplaint\u201d in January 2024, Courell said: \u201cIn generic terms, if someone came to me and said, \u2018Something is happening\u2019, I would want to give them a safe space to say it. But I would then tell them to engage in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI believe we are doing outstanding work on safeguarding.\u201d <\/p>\n

Committee chairman Alan Kelly requested a timeline in relation to the FAI\u2019s actions so the committee can understand their safeguarding procedures. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn relation to the distinction between concerns and complaints,\u201d he added, \u201cthere is a concern that in the pre-January 2024 period, the association wasn\u2019t robust enough and didn\u2019t deal with the seriousness of the issue.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Football Association of Ireland should have acted sooner when concerns were raised in 2023 about the alleged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,13446,61,60,270,12636],"class_list":{"0":"post-41163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-oireachtas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}