I welcome this discussion with the Minister of State. The comments by Deputy Clendennen brought me reminders of years ago. The World Cup in 1990 was after my first year in college. I flew to Germany to work for the summer. We arrived where we were due to work for the summer and the first thing we looked for was a place to watch the match before we even went to where we were staying. I recall the quarter-final game against Italy going to extra time. I was meant to go back to work at the hotel. I was doing a split shift. I remember ringing, trying to talk in German and explain to them that I could not come back because I had to watch the penalty shoot-out. Luckily enough, I kept my job for the rest of the summer. I am delighted to have an opportunity to speak. Football, like all sports, gives us great memories and we need to praise the work being done by the FAI, in recent years in particular, in bringing footfall. I think of Longford Town FC. I had not realised I could not wear a jersey here, but I am a proud supporter of Longford Town Football Club, which has strived in difficult times in a small county to make sure we stay in the League of Ireland. We have had our successes down the years of winning cups and getting into the premier division. I pay tribute to Jim, Caroline and everyone involved in the club for the work they do to keep the fantastic facilities. A wall was blown down in a storm last year. The club came together with some funding from the FAI and made sure the wall was built. It was great that supporters got involved to make sure that facility got back up and running. We have seen the significant investment by the Government in the academies. If we want a strong future for Irish soccer at an international level, we need to continue to invest more. I am supportive of us increasing that investment over a number of years to bring it up to a level equal to that in other countries to make sure we have success. We need more 5G pitches to be available for the clubs that feed into our league clubs. It is important we identify areas where there is a lack of facilities and make sure we have enough facilities to play underage games. We got information from the FAI about our stadiums. Some of the infrastructure in some areas is probably some of the worst in Europe. We are coming up to Euro 2028 and we are talking about a legacy from that, which has to be proper infrastructure, academies and proper facilities, particularly for ladies'. There are limited facilities for ladies' football. That legacy also has to be making sure that men and women have the facilities and opportunities to maximise their potential on the football field and give us far more memories in the future.

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