Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for attending. Deputy O'Sullivan mentioned women in sport. Maggie Farrelly was mentioned as having made history. I would also mention Michelle O'Neill from Wexford. She became the first Irish referee to officiate at the Olympic Games, which was great. As we are approaching the end of the meeting, most questions have been asked. The representative of the Irish Soccer Referees Society said in his statement that the problem is nationwide. He also said that the FAI rule book sets out certain rules but are they are greatly enforced? What is the case?

A representative of the GAA mentioned a survey was being done by Dr. Noel Brick, a lecturer in sports psychology. Is that available to the public and to the committee? I would say its findings would be very interesting.

What do the witnesses consider to be the biggest obstacle for referees? I played all sports and I coached the three sports represented here. I have some experience of it. I ended my sporting career in rugby. I passed on much of the information I got from rugby because it was disciplined. There were very few incidents. In the other sports there were some, especially with respect to players. We must concentrate on having a player-driven and particularly a coach-driven approach to tackling this problem. I have found there are good coaches and bad coaches and often when there is a bad coach there is indiscipline and that spreads throughout the club and on to the field. It is important coaches are really aware of what they are coaching.

Regarding the Respect campaign, we also had a great campaign against racism. Racism must be addressed in sport. Do the witnesses consider a campaign involving high profile spokespeople could help in championing respect towards officials? Should such a campaign be introduced? Many high profile panellists are inclined to take apart referees when they make a mistake. We have high profile games where the referee has a video assistant referee, which is very good. We should welcome the technology and we have Hawk-Eye and so forth. Ordinary referees do not have benefit of that technology. They have to make a split second decision at a moment in time. They make it, whether it be right or wrong, and it has to be dealt with. I advised all the teams I coached that the referee is the 16th player on the field. The referee can play with the team or against it and it is up to members of the team to be disciplined. That point should also be put forward.

It was also stated that great knowledge could be shared from all three organisations getting together. Even if players from the different disciplines met once or twice a year and discussed situations in each discipline, that would be very good.