Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With the indulgence of the Chair, I have a question for the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers. With regard to the situation with the Liverpool fans at Saturday night's match in Paris, how many Irish Liverpool fans were in Paris for the UEFA Champions League final as well? The fans, some of them children, were treated disgracefully by the French authorities and the commentary afterwards rubbed salt in the wounds. Obviously, UEFA has a stake in all of this as well. Clearly, the venue appeared to be quite unsuitable and the organising, or lack thereof, appeared to fall well short of what one would expect for a major European final. Would the Minister of State consider conveying to UEFA his concern that there is nothing to stop this from happening, for example, to travelling Irish fans for an Irish international game in the future, if that is the poor level of organisation at UEFA events? Would he consider expressing his concern? As I said, many Irish lads were caught up in the hassle, through no fault of theirs, on Saturday night. They appear to have been treated disgracefully. It is not acceptable and we should express our concern about it. Cities like Paris that have been awarded big tournaments such as this should not get them again if they have mishandled them and dealt with them badly, as Paris clearly did on Saturday night.