Mr. Sean Slattery:

On the Deputy's question on the rules not being enforced, those are FAI regulations. Some members might not be aware that every league in the country has a disciplinary committee. They are mostly run by hard-working people who are also volunteers. A new system was brought in a few years ago and Mr. Perry would have been on top of that when it was introduced. Any assaults are now reported. The referee sends in a match report of the assault to the league. Immediately, all assaults nationwide go to a disciplinary control unit, which is run by the FAI. It has its own panel, including legal experts. Assaults have not been dealt with at local level since 2019. They all go to the disciplinary control unit, which has very strong powers. It recently handed down a few suspensions for 12 months, which is the minimum. The problem with the persistent verbal abuse and misconduct, sometimes by coaches, etc. - the same people engage in it all the time - is that it is dealt with at the discretion of the local league disciplinary committees. The problem seems to be, and it surfaced a few weeks ago, that the same names keep getting reported for misconduct and either small fines or small suspensions were given out whereas under the FAI’s regulations there is a much wider span. It is nearly open-ended for the handing down of lengthy bans, etc. There is a sense that many of the leagues do not the enforce the existing sanctions. It is not that new sanctions are needed but there needs to be enforcement of the existing sanctions. I hope that is helpful to the Deputy.