Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy's sentiments but I do not believe that these two things are in conflict or should be in conflict. We learned today that Türkiye has withdrawn its bid. This means we anticipate that next week - in fact on budget day - UEFA will formally announce that the UK and Ireland will host the 2028 tournament. This is going to be great for football. It is going to be great for the country. It is a good thing for UK-Ireland relations and this is something I will discuss with the Prime Minister when we meet in Granada tomorrow.

The two stadiums we need are the Aviva stadium, which is pretty much built already and will not require a huge amount of additional work, and crucially we need Casement Park in Belfast. We are in discussions with the Ulster GAA council and also the British Government as to how we can make a contribution to the cost of building that new stadium, which I believe we should.

With regard to other facilities such as local clubs and also the League of Ireland clubs we have a sports capital programme and applications are open for that at the moment. We also have the large-scale investment in sports scheme. Both of those options are open for the clubs to apply to.

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