I join my colleague an Teachta Ó Snodaigh in paying tribute to our comrade and friend, Deputy Joanna Byrne, who stood up not just for the grassroots of football, as she does every single day of her life, but also stood up for Palestine and paid a heavy price for it. We thank her for her advocacy. I would not claim to be the biggest soccer fan. I would not dare to. I am here in my Bohs jersey in honour of my grandad who played for the team, although I am reliably informed that I live in a Rovers house, apparently, so good luck to me going home this evening. My grandson, who is also a massive Rovers fan, plays for Corinthians down in Cork. I have seen at first hand with him the benefits that come from soccer and football. He plays soccer, Gaelic football, hurling and everything. I have seen the benefits of sport and specifically the benefits of soccer. I often wonder to myself why it is that it does not get the attention it deserves. I would like to give my own local clubs a shout out: Glebe North, Balbriggan FC, Rush Athletic, Lusk United and Skerries Town. They are never ever done fundraising - Skerries Town has just launched a buy-a-brick fundraiser - and the volunteers are busy, busy. We see millions of euro raised by the betting tax, but this seems to find its way in big numbers into horse racing and big golf tournaments. It does not, though, seem to get down to the grassroots. The danger in this is that the grassroots will not thrive. We all want to see the grassroots game thrive because from our grassroots come the men and women who will grow up to play for their country and do us all proud. They will play for the local team and they will play for the country. That is really important and will be lost unless the Government changes the way it funds soccer and sport in general and actually put the funds where they are needed, that is, into the grassroots and into the academies to get our young people out and playing sport and ensuring they stay and stick with the game through their teenage years.

Sentiment score: 0.34