Mr. Ger McDermott:

I completely agree with the points made by Mr. Phillips and agree that online abuse is very much a societal issue. The FAI has a social media policy on online abuse, which is linked to the code of conduct that is part of our regulations. A mechanism to deal with online abuse when it happens, and the anonymity that people have, as Mr. Phillips referenced, is really important. It is tough for us to deal with online abuse so any legislation or mechanism for reporting and handling online abuse would be fully welcomed.

Negative behaviours, such as incidents of racism, will not be tolerated and are unacceptable. They are learned behaviours. As part of our new strategy we are considering how we can get into the education space and look at how we can help teachers with resources. All sports, in particular the senior international football team that recently enjoyed some success on the pitch, are very diverse, which reflects Irish society. Children view players as superstars. Therefore, we have an opportunity to use the profile of our superstars to help teachers in the education sector to, hopefully, use sport and these superstars as a way to educate people on what is acceptable behaviour. We are all different. We need to treat people fairly and stamp out racism. We certainly need help to counteract online abuse and anything that can be done with the mechanism would be fantastic.