Sanctions against the State of Israel Bill 2025: Second Stage [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-14
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Ruth Coppinger (PBP), Dublin West

Just to make it clear, there are actually two matches. Many of us are saying "Stop the game" but it should be "Stop the games". I got an email back from Brian Kerr when I contacted him in relation to this and he made the point, which a lot of us are not emphasising, that we should not be playing Israel anywhere. We should not have anything to do with them. How can the Minister not see that? That was one solitary thing she could have done. We have to rely yet again on the ordinary people of this country to mobilise and stop that match. If it is not stopped beforehand, we have to gather and prevent it happening that day. I am confident we can do that because there are public meetings taking place around the country. We have launched a campaign which many people have signed up to - sports personalities, political figures and so on. Momentum is building around that. Every ordinary person in the country knows this should not happen. It is just not right.
It is a really poor reflection on the sports Minister and the Taoiseach who pushed the team to go ahead with that. Many of them are people of colour, from racialised communities and so on. I am sure they do not want to but the Government is nearly putting them in that situation. I appeal to the team to take a stand. It will have the support, I believe, of the vast majority of people in this country.
This Bill should be supported and should be campaigned for in the next week. I agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett that there should be a free vote. The Government allowed a free vote on women's rights and bodily autonomy last night in here and it should allow it on this as well.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:56+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-14