Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to be brief. I welcome the witnesses. We are very proud of each organisation in terms of their work at local, national and international level.

I am the Co-Chairperson of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. I also previously served as Chairman of the Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. Two of the three organisations here today operate on an all-Ireland basis, while one only operates in the Twenty-six Counties, with the Irish Football Association, IFA, operating in Northern Ireland.

The Irish Football Association recently took a case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport where it was determined that players from the Republic of Ireland could play for Northern Ireland and players from Northern Ireland could play for the Republic of Ireland. They had a dual nationality. What is the view of Mr. Delaney on that?

Somebody ran a double-decker bus to Germany in 1988. We went for two weeks and in the Evening Presswe were told where we could or could not go. That was the organisational capacity of the time but we have moved on. There are now iPhones, fan zones and Republic of Ireland supporter clubs. One thing seems to be lacking, which is a fan embassy. I am part of an ad hoc cross-party group in Leinster House. The Welsh fans have embassies that work closely with its department dealing with foreign affairs. We are hoping to work in the same way. It was joyful to see the fans from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in particular working together. There will always be a bad apple and I am always afraid that sometimes the exuberance could get out of hand. We need to put fan and supporter clubs on a particular footing and I understand there are fan embassies all over Europe now. We are working closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to try to get this up and running. What is the view of the witness and does the FAI welcome it?