The increasingly bitter fall-out from Billy Walsh’s departure from Irish boxing’s High Performance Unit has seen Sport Ireland hit back at the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) this evening.
Earlier today the IABA released a statement saying that they never wanted Walsh to leave his job “and did everything within reason to meet his demands”.
The statement added that: “it is important to point out that in all of our dealings with Billy during this process, the vast majority of the discussions related to remuneration matters. To suggest otherwise, is a total misrepresentation of the facts.”
The Association also criticised Sport Ireland in that statement – saying that comments by Sport Ireland chairman Kieran Mulvey and chief executive John Treacy were “unhelpful, highly questionable and disingenuous”.
In response, Sport Ireland say that the IABA have released “very little new information” today and indicated that they will also be re-appearing before the Committee to give their version of events and called on the IABA to answer their request to answer a series of relevant questions before next Wednesday.
That Wednesday meeting will see the heads of the IABA and Sport Ireland appear before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Tourism, Transport and Sport to answer questions about how Walsh was allowed to leave Irish sport.
Here is Sport Ireland’s statement in full:
“Sport Ireland has noted the statement made today by the IABA regarding the recent resignation of Billy Walsh as Head Coach. Unfortunately there was very little new information contained within it and it remains unclear what transpired in the weeks before Billy Walsh’s resignation.
“Sport Ireland has been invited to attended the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications on Wednesday October 28. This is the appropriate forum for Sport Ireland, as the custodian of taxpayers money, to provide a comprehensive statement to all matters arising.
“On October 21 Sport Ireland wrote to the IABA seeking answers to certain specific and relevant questions. It would be very useful if those responses were provided in advance of the Oireachtas Committee meeting.”