The League of Ireland and the GAA have undeniably done tremendous work over recent years. This is clearly borne out by attendance figures, especially for the League of Ireland, which saw over 1.1 million people attend games. There has been more than an 11.7% rise in the number of spectators year on year. Soccer and GAA clubs have innovated in how they raise funds and how they support their local communities in all sorts of ways. I wholeheartedly commend everybody involved in football clubs. They deserve credit, especially the very many volunteers. While Government figures will always be willing to put out social media posts during a national team campaign, the fact of the matter is that the successes of the League of Ireland have been in spite of the Government rather than because of it. The League of Ireland severely lacks investment and proper infrastructure. There have been a lot of League of Ireland jerseys outside the Chamber today. Unfortunately, while County Monaghan does have many fantastic clubs, the only professional team in my county folded back in 2012 because of debts of just €6,000. There is no League of Ireland club in County Cavan. I ask the Minister of State to put more funds into encouraging that happening in Cavan and Monaghan. We all know how beneficial it is to children and young people growing up. Instead, as a TD from a Border county, today I had to wear a Derry City jersey, which is reflective of my ambition that we would see an all-Ireland league and national team. What we would like to see from the Minister of State is an update of the code of practice for safety and the putting in place of funding to help clubs to meet it. I also ask him to fulfil his party’s commitment to increase the betting tax by 1% and put that money into sports funding, and to commit to multi-annual funding for facilities and infrastructure while working with organisations to become self-sufficient. I also commend and show solidarity with my party colleague, Deputy Joanna Byrne. As chairperson of Drogheda United, she was central to the fantastic work that has taken place there. I note some Government figures were very quick to express opinions that the Ireland-Israel game should take place. I also welcome that the Minister for foreign affairs only recently launched a sports diplomacy policy. Let us be real, however. The Government does not have a sports diplomacy strategy for the love of the game. It is diplomatic soft power, sport being inherently political. I invite the Minister of State to reflect on his party's support for that game and perhaps consider his Government’s role in supporting the soft power and sportswashing of the genocidal Israeli regime.

Sentiment score: 0.31