Sports Organisations Dail Éireann — 2026-02-24 ============================================================ Ruairí Ó Murchú (SF), Louth Deputy Byrne has put out a statement. I have spoken to her many times on this. She calls out what was abject criminal activity. Everyone will be aware that Deputy Byrne is the co-chair of Drogheda United. People will also know that she called on the FAI to ensure that Ireland would not play genocidal Israel. On that basis, action has been taken by Drogheda United. That is being dealt with at the minute. It probably limits what Deputy Byrne can speak about, but she has 100% said that this has been an ongoing problem with the League of Ireland. I will tell the Minister of State what she told me on the day. We were both there in Oriel Park. The first thing she was worried about was getting to that child, which was the right thing to do, because she had been contacted by the parents. The next thing she queried was: what do you think is going to happen when I ask about League of Ireland funding, of which there has been a shortage over a number of years? I see this being thrown back as an excuse on why that money would not be spent. It sounds like the Minister of State is not in complete agreement with the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan. The Minister went over the top in saying, "plague on all your houses". I hope what he is doing is a shot across the bow. There is a responsibility on the FAI, League of Ireland and clubs to find a solution to this. All information has to be provided to the Garda but legislative changes that need to considered. The two Ministers would need to do work on that. There are legislative powers in Britain relating to those who would ever consider doing some of the actions that happened in Oriel Park. Regarding families, I agree. I was contacted by one man who I know very well. He said that his daughter said, "I don't want to go to a game ever again." The daughter of another friend of mine, who is even younger, was doing ball girl. He said, "Imagine, she was over there." That is a rethink. That is not good enough. I hope those people will rethink. I hope the Minister, never mind worrying about myself and Deputy Byrne, would worry about the issue and a back track that should happen by him. Money needs to be supplied to the League of Ireland. The Minister of State agreed previously that there has been underinvestment over many years. I welcome this investment. We need to see more. We need to make sure that we work alongside the League of Ireland and the FAI to find a solution. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-24/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-24