Mr. Kieran Mulvey:

Yes, and that exception is down to raw emotion. I have been in Windsor Park on good nights and on bad nights. The atmosphere can be challenging at times, let me put it that way. This is an issue I assume the Football Association of Ireland, FAI, and the Irish Football Association, IFA, are working on themselves. Together with our colleagues in the North, we act as facilitators and are happy to assist in any engagements that take place. It is an important aspect of what we do.

Senator Mooney also had a question to do with minority sports, which is an issue we do keep on our radar. We apportion funding sometimes on the basis of participation, sometimes on the basis of competition, sometimes in respect of facilities and sometimes around performance. There is no doubt that in recent years, new athletes in new sports have come to prominence. The build-up of cycling, for example, has been enormous; hence the need for the velodrome. The Senator is correct that Team GB has targeted the two sports of cycling and rowing in particular, and one can see the haul it has taken out of them. It used to be just Oxford and Cambridge in the boat race, but now there is so much more going on. We were a great rowing nation in the past. We all remember the achievements of Seán Drea and others.