Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all the witnesses and thank them for their engagement today. I will ask a question of each group. I will start with Sport Against Racism. This comes in the week that an Irish under-21 team walked off the field on Monday night when playing against Kuwait because one of our substitutes was subjected to racist remarks by a Kuwaiti player. This follows the racist abuse in March of our under-15 team. The witnesses talked about graffiti on signage. It is a bad state of affairs when international sports players still think it is socially acceptable - I despair. Equally, last weekend we had seismic moment, which touches on Sport Against Racism's living together through football programme, which is especially active in the North, in breaking down sectarianism. The former Irish rugby captain spoke about the fact that when he brought his then 11 year old son to play Gaelic football in Derry, his son asked him why. When his son was 18 he was out one night with his mates. They went to a restaurant and he was trying to get home. The next morning he told his father, "I now know why you told me to play Gaelic football Dad".

He told him how the previous night he could have gone home with the Gaelic football lads or the rugby boys. Willie asked if there was any difference and he said there was not. Willie told him that is what sport is, and even more importantly, that is what life is. It was a big thing in Ireland this week that Willie Anderson came out and said that and I want to commend him on doing that podcast on BBC last weekend.

We saw the unfortunate incidents this week. Mr. Drury touched on the issue of it not being about more money but on the pillar sports in particular, rather being reactive, and we have seen racist incidents in Wexford GAA and on the international stage with Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, what can we do at home, on a proactive basis, to counteract that?