Howlin calls for statutory inquiry into Rio ticketing scandal

Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin has said a statutory inquiry is needed into the Rio ticketing scandal.

“There is no doubt that we need a statutory inquiry because a toothless enquiry right now will actually muddy the waters in the short term,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.

“We should have a clear view from government about what exactly is going to be inquired into, what is the scope of this and it shouldn’t be a very broad plate.”

Mr Howlin said the inquiry must be a statutory one as under the OCI’s constitution its members are precluded from sharing information with a non-statutory investigation.

“They can’t cooperate without breaching their own constitution and it certainly is a good excuse for people who don’t want to. There is no legal impediment for the destruction of data right now because there is no statutory enquiry that would require them to be preserved, so you’re entirely dependent on the good will of individuals.

“Unlike other non statutory inquiries this is looking at a body where the state or any other state agency is not in possession of all the data, it is exclusively in the possession of a non state body and it seems to me that it will inevitably run into difficulties in a non statutory investigation.”

He said it was very difficult to react to each piece of evidence that comes to light in a piecemeal fashion. There was a need to see the comprehensive case and then have a response to it, having heard the rebuttal from Mr Hickey or his legal team.

Concerns

Mr Howlin added he had a number of concerns. What exactly will the inquiry do? Will it overlap the Brazilian investigation? Will it look at breaches of Irish civil or criminal law?

“Is it to look at issue of contracts or breach of contracts or financial accountability of a publicly funded body?

“We read that it is to look back to 2012 and even corporate governance of the OCI - so it seems to be that this is much broader in scope than was originally intended.

“It seems to me that this cannot work and will not work because a non statutory inquiry with no powers to even demand the retention of papers or documentation or electronically stored data is doomed to fail and that becomes even more into context if you read the OCI’s own constitution.

“It contains a blank prohibition which is binding on all its officers, board members, and the membership of OCI which prevents it from sharing information with a body without statutory powers.”

He agreed with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin's call about the assumption of innocence. "Everyone is entitled to presumption of innocence, that is corner stone of law as we know it.

“The notion that evidence would be presented in a piecemeal fashion with the right of rebuttal, that the accused would be incarcerated immediately, the ‘perp walk’ pictures of arrest, is something that we find unacceptable.”

‘Personal fiefdom’

Meanwhile, former minister for justice and Independent Senator Michael McDowell says that bodies that are in receipt of public funds ‘can’t simply be allowed to be a personal fiefdom, doing what they wish with valuable things such as tickets for the Olympics.’

“You can’t claim to be an entirely private body and tell the Minister to get back in his box when he enquires what you’re doing with your tickets and at the same time put your hand out for public money,” he told the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk.

Mr McDowell said public interest in Ireland now is on the organisation and governance of the Olympic Council of Ireland.

“It is ill-advised that one person was there for 30 years in charge. Is it really a self selecting group like Fifa, is it a satisfactory government model if it’s going to be publicly funded?”

He said the issue of the inquiry is complicated. “I think a non statutory inquiry faces huge challenges, two of the people it would want to speak to are in Brazil at the moment, and even if released might not be able to come back to Ireland.

“The second thing, a non statutory inquiry simply doesn’t have the right to compel people to make material available, it depends on voluntary cooperation.

“If somebody comes and gives evidence and is evasive or untruthful, they aren’t under oath, they don’t commit an offence if they mislead the enquiry and they certainly don’t commit an offence if they fail to answer questions.

“They’re not obliged to provide their own PCs or other material such as records.

The inquiry has no right to go to phone companies or to banks to see what Pro10 was or was not doing in terms of financial transactions or how many phone calls they were receiving.

“There’s talk about a retired judge chairing it. Judges take leave of their office, they don’t take leave of their senses. A judge would have to be looking around a few corners before he or she would commit themselves to producing a report within 12 weeks to give a full picture.

“No way of compelling THG and Marcus Evans to participate with an enquiry.

What status does any report have? One status it wouldn’t have is absolute privilege. The person carrying out the investigation and reporting would be liable to be sued if somebody else claimed they acted maliciously.

“There was a close relationship between THG and the OCI under Pat Hickey, he indicated they had first refusal of the Rio Olympics, the International Olympic Committee rejected them as an ATR arising out of previous controversy. It appears to me that they were brought in sideways into the whole arrangement.

“The Government does put significant amounts of the tax payers’ money into sports council initiatives to train athletes giving them the resources to participate in the Olympics and in other international competitions and they put a lot of money into sport at local level too.

“Are the tickets going to go to Irish athletes and Irish sport supporting public or are they going through nefarious channels into the hands of rich people who can pay a premium for them.”