THE Deloitte report will be presented to Horse Sport Ireland’s board meeting on Tuesday and if chairman Prof Pat Wall has his way, it will be put on the HSI website that evening.

There’s been speculation that the report may never see the light of day and it’s understood that Deloitte would prefer that it not be published as is the case with other internal audit reports.

The report arose out of the Public Accounts Committee investigation into HSI following correspondence with Millstreet’s Thomas Duggan.

HSI chairman Prof Wall said: “The Deloitte Report was triggered by the PAC and will be presented to the HSI board meeting on Tuesday. The Sports Council paid for it. It’s an internal audit report by Deloitte and those are not usually put up on websites. However, we want it up on the Horse Sport Ireland web and I’m hopeful that will happen. We have sought permission from Sport Ireland to publish the audit on our website and, if we get the green light from them, we will publish it if the HSI Board approve this course of action at our board meeting on Tuesday.

“There was nothing irregular found, that’s the main thing. There are no big exposés or smoking guns in it. There are about five recommendations in it which we hope to act on quickly. One comment made was that we have not got enough resources in Horse Sport Ireland to satisfy all the needs of our affiliates. As a report, it has had a long gestation,” said Wall.

Paul McDermott, director of high performance and communications of the Irish Sports Council, said: “The audit has been approved and sent to Horse Sport Ireland. For an auditor to complete their work, it is carried out on a confidential basis. From our point of view, we hope there will be access to it in due course.”

Meanwhile, now that a Government has finally been formed, Wall is anxious to meet with the new Minister for Agriculture, Corkman Michael Creed (FG) and to present a business plan to him and his officials to effectively develop the sport horse industry to its potential.

Wall is also anxious to move ahead with the implementation of key measures outlined in the Reaching New Heights report, unveiled last year by former Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney.

“We have contacted Minister Creed with a view to meeting with us as soon as possible and we are looking forward to that. We are not going with a begging bowl. We are going with a business plan, a strategy based on deliverable jobs, tourism, growth. We have a multi-point plan we want to outline to Minister Creed. We want HSI to be included in the other agri sectors to be promoted, there is great potential in the €700m sport horse industry.

“We need to move with the recommendations in Reaching New Heights. Discussion groups are starting and will be a major factor,” said Wall.