The performance director of the Irish Sailing Association has said that the biggest loss from the ticketing scandal is that it has overshadowed the performance of athletes at the 2016 Olympic Games.
James O'Callaghan said it was clear from a report by retired judge Carroll Moran that athletes and their families were not at the centre of the Olympic Council of Ireland's thinking and he said that was unfortunate.
The report into alleged ticket touting at the Rio Olympic Games found that the seller appointed by the OCI was not genuine and provided an inadequate and chaotic service.
Mr O’Callaghan said the biggest shame was that tomorrow is the one year anniversary of Annalise Murphy winning her silver medal for sailing and yet the ticketing scandal was still on the agenda.
He also said that families of sailors were not able to get tickets to support their relatives last year. However, he said the OCI had taken big strides in terms of transparency and hopefully the controversy was in the past.
Meanwhile, the Government has not yet made a decision on whether to reinstate nearly €400,000 in funding withheld from the OCI due to corporate governance issues.
The OCI usually gets around €300,000 annual funding administered through Sport Ireland to fund programmes and administration.
Around one quarter of the 2016 funding and all of this year's money had been withheld in advance of the Moran report into alleged ticket touting.
Today, a Government spokesperson said no decision had yet been made on whether to reinstate the funding, however it would be examined.
An OCI spokesperson said they anticipated they would get the funding soon given that the organisation had co-operated with the inquiry.
