The Football Association of Ireland has encountered "significant challenges" in its attempts to fill four new senior positions set out in the association's reform programme, it emerged last night.
While a special allocation last March of €300,000 in State funding included the filling of the new directorships, the Irish Sports Council has told the Dáil Committee of Public Accounts that existing staff members have "assumed certain functions" within the roles of the directorships.
The committee will discuss the situation at a meeting with the council today in Leinster House.
While the four new posts were to be created in line with recommendations in the Genesis report into the FAI, senior officials in the association said the work embraced in three of the posts was being carried out but under different titles.
The chief executive of the Irish Sports Council, Mr John Treacy, said in a letter to the committee last August that progress has been slower than expected in filling the posts.
"In response to the provision of funding, the FAI has been working to develop robust job descriptions for the posts as part of a restructuring of the organisation necessitated by those appointments," he said.
"As an interim measure, members of staff within the FAI have assumed certain functions within the roles of these four directors' posts." While the council would "continue to carefully monitor the expenditure of all grants provided to the FAI", it was satisfied with efforts made by the FAI in response to the Genesis report.
The November 2002 report set out four positions at director level in the areas of performance, communications and marketing, football operations, and finance and administration.
A senior FAI official said last night that the performance directorship remained unfilled after difficulties were encountered in setting out the specific responsibilities for the post. However, the official said that the association had now agreed how the position would be filled and the responsibilities it would embrace.
The official said the communications role in the communications and marketing directorship was being carried out by Mr Pat Costello, formerly of the Irish Special Olympics organisation.
