I raised the issue of stopping the game two weeks ago and I said at the time that the Minister of State’s response was a cop-out. His response tonight is again an absolute cop-out. The amendment he tabled is another cop-out. I am a season ticket holder for the Irish national team and for a League of Ireland team. I love football. My missus will tell the Minister of State I love it too much. However, I hate the idea of Israel using my sport, the sport I love, to sportswash its way out of genocide.

Sentiment score: 0.18

That is what the Minister of State is standing over. He is complicit in this. The Minister of State can shake his head all he wants. Does he know what else is a cop-out? It is not having the balls to go to the Aviva or wherever the match is going to be on and backing the Irish players. The Minister of State is afraid to go to the match but he will send the young men out in the green to go and play it without any backup from the Irish Government. The Government needs to stand by its convictions if it is going to do it. The Government has shown no leadership on this whatsoever. It can tell the FAI not to play, and support it in not playing the game. It can tell the FAI it has its back. The FAI is reliant on the Government for funding. That is where the problem lies. It is too terrified of its paymasters to make a decision. If the Minister of State stood up and said, "I will back the FAI. If the FAI decides that it will not play this match, I will have its back", I guarantee there would be a different response from the FAI. The association also needs to not have a cop-out. We are not calling for this match to be moved somewhere else; we are calling for it to be abandoned altogether and not to happen. We are calling for Israel to be put out of UEFA and FIFA competitions altogether. Israel has broken international law. It has also broken the laws of UEFA and FIFA by having ten football teams playing in occupied territories. That is against FIFA and UEFA laws. It should have been put out for that alone.

Sentiment score: -0.12