An tOrd Gnó (Atógáil) - Order of Business (Resumed)
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-09
============================================================

Sinéad Gibney (SD), Dublin Rathdown

Earlier, when the Taoiseach spoke about Stop the Game, I think he implied, basically, that sport is not political. I would have a litany of examples to show him that there are many ways in which sports and politics interact and have traditionally done so. What is political is boycott, and we have a proud tradition of boycotting in this country. It is a way of expressing our solidarity with a people who are being inflicted by a brutal regime with a genocide in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon right now. Multiple of the Taoiseach's Ministers have said they would not attend the game, which I find highly hypocritical when the Taoiseach then says he will not support the FAI in changing its decision to UEFA not to hold the game. Will the Taoiseach allow a free vote on the motion from Sinn Féin this evening and from us in the Social Democrats tomorrow, where we propose that the Government advocate for exclusion of Israel in all international sporting fixtures? Will he allow his TDs to vote freely on our motion tomorrow?

---

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/2026-06-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-09