Sports Events Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-29 ============================================================ Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel I thank the Minister of State for coming in. I suspect he is in to defend the indefensible because genocidal Israel will be coming to the Aviva Stadium to play Ireland. I find it absolutely staggering that the Government will welcome Israel here with open arms. It is beyond belief. The Government constantly expresses concern and condemnation over what apartheid Israel is doing in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran but never acts to ensure Israel faces consequences. Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and has starved Palestinians to death. It is a terror state and it has dismantled international law. It has faced no consequences for all the terror it has inflicted on the world. What I cannot understand is why the Government, which regularly condemns Israel, never takes action. Words are meaningless to Israel. It needs to see action. The game with Israel is a prime example of the Government speaking out of both sides of its mouth. On one side of its mouth, we have the Government saying it is going to pass the occupied territories Bill and suspend the trade pact with Israel but, on the other side of its mouth, it will welcome Israel to come here and play football. In what word does that make sense? Israel flouts international law every hour, day, week, month and year. The Irish Government is spineless and does nothing to hold Israel to account. In fact, it does not do nothing - it welcomes Israel here to play, which is worse than doing nothing. Israel should not even be in UEFA and FIFA. We hear people saying that politics and sport should be separate and never mixed. The reality is that sport is political and there is no changing that fact. With genocidal Israel using football to sportswash their apartheid and genocide, sport and politics are intertwined whether people like it or not. The Palestinian Football Association has said that 565 Palestinian footballers, coaches and referees have been killed in Gaza by Israel's genocide, one of those being Muhammad Khalifa, who came here to play teams across Ireland. He is remembered fondly by his family and also by his Irish football family. The killers of Mr. Khalifa could be here in Ireland when Ireland plays Israel. That is just not acceptable. Given this fact, how can UEFA and FIFA allow Israel to take part in world football? Poland refused to play Russia when Ukraine was invaded and there were no consequences for Poland, so why can Ireland not refuse to play Israel? The reason is that the Irish Government is spineless. That is what the evidence indicates. If the match goes ahead - and I sincerely hope it does not - what plans has the Government in place for screening of Israeli players, management and supporters? What security screening does it have in place for the team, management, players and supporters of Israel? Will players, management and supporters who have participated in genocide be allowed to come and go without any consequences? Will the killers of Mr. Khalifa, if they are here, be allowed to come and go without any consequences? Will the Government just turn a blind eye to those coming here to play and support genocidal Israel? If it does come to light that one of the team or supporters were involved in genocide, what proactive steps will the Government take to ensure they are held to face the consequences? The Football Association of Ireland, FAI, president and CEO need to ensure that they do not facilitate sportswashing by genocidal apartheid Israel. Senior management in the FAI knows what is going in Gaza and that hundreds of footballers have been killed by Israeli forces, so they need to listen to their own members and stop the game. The FAI congress said no to Israel, and the CEO and president need to listen to their own members and not do the Government's bidding. --- 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/seanad/2026-04-29/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:52+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-29