National Governing Bodies
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-11
============================================================

Charlie McConalogue (FF), Donegal

What the Deputy has been supporting and proposing in the House this week is not just related to the match, which obviously has dominated the discussion and debates. What she has been supporting and advocating is that all Irish athletes across all sports should not participate in any competitions internationally in which Israel is also participating. That basically means that while the illegal occupation of the occupied territories continues, Ireland would not participate in any sports anywhere. It would not just apply to the match at the end of September but to all sports. It means we would not be sending a team to the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028 unless the occupied territories are unoccupied by that point in time. That is what the Opposition is advocating for. It does not just relate to the match. It is the logical extension of saying the match should not go ahead. We have been clear, from a Government point of view, that it is not through closing down all sport that we take a stance and show leadership politically. It is by doing what we have been doing internationally, which we have been very much to the forefront of.

---

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/2026-06-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-11