Ms Mary O'Connor:

I thank the Chairperson, Deputies and Senators for inviting the Federation of Irish Sport to make a statement today. For those who may not be familiar with the work of the federation, we are an independent, not-for-profit, representative body of 110 organisations across Ireland, including 81 national governing bodies, NGBs, and 29 local sports partnerships, LSPs. The federation’s statement today will focus on recommendations for consideration by the committee to aid the elimination of any and all abuse directed towards referees, officials and players in sport. For more than a century, sport organisations, from grassroots to elite, have provided an extraordinary platform to teach values, create better societies, teach empathy and improve human rights. Great progress has been made in challenging racism and promoting and creating opportunities for inclusion for under-represented groups, including females, the LGBTI community and ethnic minorities. However, abuse of referees, officials and players has been referenced as sport's ugly blind spot despite these individuals being essential participants in making sport happen.

The Federation of Irish Sport respectfully recommends the following actions on this important topic be considered by the joint committee under the following headings: communications and information, research-training-education, and resources and funding. Those actions include the establishment of a working group of key stakeholders in Irish Sport to develop and design a national code of conduct for Irish Sport as part of a safeguarding and education toolkit; the expansion of action 2.3 of the Sports Action Plan 2021-2023 relating to an information campaign to include the unacceptability of any and all abuse directed towards referees, officials and players in sport; the appointment of campaign ambassadors-role models to reflect a zero tolerance stance on the abuse of referees, officials and players; and to develop a campaign tagline with a core message to use on all internal and external communication tools such as a core message along the lines:

There is no place for abuse in sport in any shape or form - Call it out. Report it. Stop it NOW. Sport is an inclusive community that embraces participants, volunteers and officials. All deserve RESPECT.

Those actions also include that all official NGB-club websites should have a public statement of compliance or a commitment to a charter to a national code of conduct to have easily accessible complaint procedures to report abuse.

The sixth action we recommend is that all NGBs develop and promote a social media policy to be adhered to by all members, including players, coaches, committee members, volunteers and parents, if they have not already done so.

The seventh action is that the provision of training and supports for administrators with regard to the handling of reported abuse should be added as a key performance indicator under action 4.2 of the Sports Action Plan 2021-2023. The eighth action is the provision of a suite of resources to assist referees, officials and players who have been the subject of abuse. The ninth action is the introduction of a requirement for large-scale sport capital infrastructure applications to include evidence of policy and actions that are being undertaken by the applicant on the eradication of abuse directed toward referees, officials and players in sport at both NGB and club level.

The tenth action is the provision of signage at all infrastructure that has received State funding condemning abuse directed towards referees, officials, players and volunteers and the promotion of sport as a safe, enjoyable learning environment for all. An alternative to this action would be the provision of signage at all infrastructure that has received State funding to outline the terms of admission at the entrances to venues and around the venues. Spectators or supporters could argue they are not bound by the rules and regulations of the club or NGB because they are not members. Placing signage detailing the terms of admission around venues may assist clubs and NGBs in arguing that, by remaining at the ground, the spectator or supporter agreed to be bound by those terms of admission. It is obviously not guaranteed to work but it may assist in acting as a deterrent.

I will now discuss online abuse. It was recently announced that the Government has agreed to begin the process of recruiting an online safety commissioner. The federation strongly endorses this decision. The federation also believes that representations should be made suggesting that, in addition to the commissioner drawing up rules on how social media services should deal with harmful online content, online abuse directed at referees, officials and players in sport should be included along with the matters already stated, which include criminal material and so on. The commissioner should also be given the power to appoint authorised officers to conduct investigations of online abuse of referees, officials and players in sport.

The 12th action we recommend is the strengthening of legislative proposals to address online harm including the introduction of a new legal framework for identifying and removing illegal and harmful content from the Internet similar those in the Online Safety Bill formally proposed and now adopted by the UK Government. The 13th action is all media outlets operating in Ireland committing to a public statement of compliance to a national code of conduct on the monitoring and blocking of online abuse in sport.

The Federation of Irish Sport respects the authority of all national governing bodies to govern their organisations and their agreed processes and procedures to deal with the abuse of referees, officials, and players but we believe that an overarching and unifying framework to assist with the elimination of any and all abuse in Irish sport should be considered.