An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

There has been comment from the Government. The Government has been very clear, and the Minister for sport has been very clear from day one, that it was a matter for the footballing community and for the FAI, who had to work within the UEFA rules and frameworks. The Government has always been of the position that the Irish soccer team should not be a casualty of this and should not suffer, rather than Israel. The outcome of Ireland not playing, by the way, was that Israel would gain and Ireland would not in the footballing sense. I made the point earlier that the Irish Government has provided about €192 million in total capital and current funding to the FAI, and we are constantly supporting the FAI, for example, with the new League of Ireland academies. That is no more than in other sports and other disciplines, by the way, and in the case of other countries that people have played against, the Government has taken that position.
The Government's overall view is that politically, diplomatically and humanitarianly, it has to take the lead on these issues to try to change Israel's outrageous positions, the assertion of their military supremacy-----

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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