Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I fully appreciate that the owner of this stadium is Dublin City Council but I was also a member of Dublin City Council for over six years and I recognise that we stripped Dublin City Council of all local government funding to the point that all it sees in its assets is how it can sell them off in order to raise funds. In this Chamber, we talk about issues of national importance. High-quality stadiums are something that every person, whether in Dublin or elsewhere in the country, can benefit from. The game of soccer is something that is so important to so many lives and brings positivity. This issue is one of such importance that we can intervene here. We need to take ownership of soccer's viability. There are two stadiums on the north side of the city, as the Minister of State will know well, which are used by Bohemians and Shelbourne. The two clubs deserve to have more than one stadium between both of only 6,500 capacity. There are four quality teams there. Bohemians now have a women's team and Shelbourne has a highly competent women's team. It is unrealistic to expect four teams to play in one stadium. I think we can intervene and provide national leadership, to ask Dublin City Council to halt the same and provide a pathway forward by which we can keep both stadiums.

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