I thank Deputy Ó Murchú for raising this matter. What happened in Oriel Park on Friday evening was an abhorrent and criminal act. It involved taking flares to the stadium, setting them alight and throwing them onto the pitch. It led to a very tragic injury to a young 12-year-old boy. All of our thoughts are with him and his family for his recovery. Our thoughts are also with those who were distressed by what happened on the night. What we saw was criminal damage to a wonderful new facility. We must stamp out that behaviour. I know that the Garda is following up the criminal behaviour that took place on the night. I have no doubt it will do that thoroughly. We must all work to address these unacceptable instances. Unfortunately, this is not the first time we have seen them. It is incumbent on clubs, the FAI, the Government and community and political leaders to work together to achieve that. In that vein, I am disappointed not to see the Sinn Féin spokesperson for sport and Deputy Ó Murchú's constituency colleague, Deputy Joanna Byrne, with him this evening. It is often common practice to do joint Topical Issues. It would have sent out a very strong message if they were both here, one from Dundalk and one from Drogheda, from the same party, and with Deputy Byrne also being the chairperson of Drogheda United, to provide leadership jointly on this issue. Deputy Byrne has made limited enough comments on this matter in the past few days. It would have been very helpful to hear from her tonight that Drogheda United will step up to the responsibility for the cost of repairing the damage to the pitch, as should be the case. What happened marred what should have otherwise been a very positive night. I was glad to visit Oriel Park just the week after Dundalk FC was promoted. They won the First Division and were promoted to the Premier Division. I saw the great pride they took in that wonderful achievement. I discussed with the club that night the fact that their pitch needed to be registered for the Premier Division, and worked with them to make sure that work could be done. It was completed two matches into the season. Dundalk's first two matches were played away from home as a result of time it was taking. It was terrible to see what should have been a great night turn into what happened instead. We have seen great progress. It is a really positive time for the League of Ireland. The Government backs football in Ireland wants to back the development of Irish football and the development of the league. That is why in the most recent budget we committed €3 million to develop academies to support young players and our clubs. We must ensure it is safe for all, in particular families, to attend these games. The announcement by the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, of a pause of funding to all League of Ireland clubs was made with this objective in mind. The decision was the Minister's and announced before consulting me as the Minister of State with responsibility for sport. I agree with him absolutely on the need to come down like a tonne of bricks to stamp out this behaviour. However, I do not believe we should collectively punish all clubs for the criminal behaviour of a small number of people participating in hooliganism. We must come down forcefully on this behaviour. There must be consequences for the people carrying out these acts, and indeed, the responsible club. We must also make sure that clubs that are not responsible are supported and not affected by the recklessness of others. I look forward to meeting with the FAI with the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, tomorrow to ensure that we can find a satisfactory way forward that achieves this objective.

Sentiment score: 0.10

I absolutely agree with the Deputy that it has been fantastic to see people of all ages and families coming to League of Ireland matches and the growth both in Premier Division and First Division attendances, and indeed, as well as the introduction of a new third tier to the League of Ireland, which will happen imminently. That is something that we want to see encouraged. It is down to the quality of the product on the pitch as well. One of the side effects of Brexit has been that we are seeing our young players staying in the country. It is about the only benefit of Brexit that I can think of. Of course, there is a responsibility on all of us as result to make sure that the pathways are put in place for those young players not only to be able to play within League of Ireland clubs until they are 18 years of age, but also to be supported to be able to become the best players they possibly can and to reach the highest level that they can in that process. That is why the Government on budget day is giving a vote of confidence to Irish football through the investment of €3 million in academies. We must all collectively make sure that it is a safe environment. The Deputy is absolutely right. People will stop going to matches unless this is stamped out. That is our objective here. We want to support football. We want to support the continuing growth of the League of Ireland. We want to support our clubs. We want to ensure that it is a safe environment. We will work with the clubs and FAI as a national governing body to make sure that a satisfactory way forward is achieved that will deliver on that and will ensure the wonderful momentum that we have seen in Irish football and the League of Ireland is continued for the rest of this year, and indeed, into the years ahead.

Sentiment score: 0.45