Cabinet Committees
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-19
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Darren O'Rourke (SF), Meath East

The Friends of Irish Athletics group presented to a packed audiovisual room earlier today. It highlighted the longstanding discrepancy, injustice and discrimination related to the World Athletics 1934 political boundary rule. This means that when an Irish runner competes for Ireland in the Olympics they are specifically representing the island of Ireland, but when an Irish runner competes in the World Athletics Championships they are specifically representing the Twenty-six Counties. The Friends of Irish Athletics group is campaigning for Athletics Ireland to bring forward a motion to the 2027 World Athletics Congress to seek a derogation from the 1934 political boundary rule. Athletics Ireland has indicated some willingness to do this. Will the Taoiseach contact Athletics Ireland on behalf of the Government to encourage it to engage with stakeholders to advance that motion?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-19