Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Ruth Coppinger (PBP), Dublin West

I wish Miriam Lord all the best in her retirement. She reaffirms that women are the wittiest and the best satirists. Fair play.
I want to raise with the Taoiseach the role of the Government and the FAI in the debacle that happened in relation to the Ireland versus Israel game, which continues on. The players are still not certain but it has been reported that they will play in the second part of that fixture. The players had to hold an emergency team meeting and vote the day before a match that had been discussed here and outside in society for months. Does the Taoiseach agree that the FAI's handling of this was shambolic, arrogant and incompetent and that the CEO and the board should resign for their handling of it? The FAI got State funding of €75 million between 2019 and 2024.
Yesterday, the FAI president was still not able to state what the financial penalties would have been. He said they were still undetermined, so the whole thing was over undetermined financial penalties. The FAI has ignored its own grassroots and doubled down on its bad decision by shifting the game, knowing that the local fans did not want it. It claimed that each player had been consulted but forgot that goalkeepers are also players as well. It all led to an eleventh-hour meeting and the exclusion of one of the players who had stated that he did not want to play. The FAI then deceptively reported the vote as being a "significant majority" when, in fact, it was 14 to nine, if you count the player who did not have a vote, the heroic and courageous Gavin Bazunu.
His welfare was not protected by the FAI either. He travelled home alone and so on. I salute him.
What pressure did agents put on young players? It was reported that the Unique Sports Group told players they would never be signed up by American-owned English clubs if they did not play in these matches. The team was sent into a cauldron of racial abuse, with monkey chants for one of the players, as well as IDF chants. A video was circulated showing Yoseph Haddad, who apparently was brought into Leinster House by the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, saying that Israel may lose the football but the IDF always wins.
My question to the Taoiseach is about the Government's role. He made a speech at the UN in which he said: "the situation in Gaza remains an affront to all that is decent" and "Let it not be said that we did not act." Two days later, he facilitated a sportswash in the game against Israel. All through this, he, the Minister and the Minister of State with responsibility for sport have encouraged this game to go ahead. They could have supported the FAI at all times. As Fintan O'Toole said, the Taoiseach had an open goal but he kicked the ball into row Z by not backing a cancellation of the match. Will he join me in calling on the players not to play the second leg of the fixture?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-29