OCI ticket inquiry venturing into usual choppy waters

Government inquiries into business and business practices have not had an entirely happy history. Even in the case of state-owned entity IBRC, an investigation into various sale transactions, including the disposal of Siteserv, has yet to show any progress.

And so it is interesting to see how the inquiry into Olympic ticket sales has been framed. Remember here that the political imperative is to get a “result” and some findings of note after the initial three-month stage.

The problems facing retired judge Mr Justice Carroll Moran are significant. There is a criminal investigation under way in Brazil. And while the OCI and various parties have said they will co-operate, initial moves will be hamstrung by the legal process. Beyond that, rows may well emerge about legal and commercial confidentiality.

Minister for Sport Shane Ross has held out the option that the inquiry could eventually be set up on a statutory basis under 2004 legislation, which would allow witnesses to be compelled. In the short term, however, the terms of reference are wide enough to allow Moran to make some findings in relation to the corporate governance of the OCI and its general approach to allocating tickets.

Tricky Irish system

As we have seen before, of course, political inquiries into the actual detail of controversial business events are complicated and tricky in the Irish legal system. It remains to be seen how the IBRC investigation will get on under revised legislation, which is designed to allow it to at least proceed with its inquiries into the sale of Siteserv.

The investigation, established under the 2004 Act, ran into a barrier when a number of the parties involved, including the Department of Finance, said they believed that documents they were asked to hand over were confidential, in the legal sense.

Given the tickets inquiry is into entities which are neither State-owned nor State-controlled – though the OCI is partly State-funded – it remains to be seen how far it will get in its first phase. Or perhaps the legal process in Brazil will tell us what we need to know.

Either way, there remains a gap here that makes State inquiries into business affairs with a genuine public interest hugely difficult, complicated and legally fraught.