Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to talk about this matter because as the Deputies acknowledged, it is an issue with which I am familiar and about which I have spoken out strongly in public. I fully appreciate the frustrations of children - we are talking about children - their parents, coaches and neighbours. I knocked on doors in some of these areas - there is an election some way away - and neighbours are talking about this issue. It is not confined to individual teams. It is a big issue in east Meath and north and west Dublin. The people involved in this issue need to know it is breaking through to the general public. From the outset of my appointment as Minister of State with responsibility for sport, women's and girls' participation in sport has been a priority for me. No child who wants to play a sport should be denied the opportunity to participate.

I met the FAI this week on this issue. It offered to brief me after I spoke out about the issue and called on it to proffer a solution. I recognise that governing bodies are independent. It is not right that on every single issue politicians should be jumping in on sports bodies. Ultimately, the FAI, not the Government, is responsible for its own sport, including matters relating to the leagues. I welcomed the opportunity to hear directly from the FAI on the issue at our meeting. I conveyed the serious concerns expressed to me by children, parents, coaches and members of the community. The staff in the FAI have been working with the different stakeholders to try to come to a solution, find a pathway for clubs that have fallen out of this league through no fault of their own and get them affiliated with particular leagues. Some of the teams have found another league. It is not a position any team should be in in underage sport that it should have to find a league. The pathway should be there. Some have done it through their own efforts. I was not aware, for example, that Tyrrelstown is joining the Louth league. I know some in east Meath, which is slightly more logical, although not ideal, have found that path themselves. I encourage the FAI to continue its work to make sure this issue is solved and give people the opportunity to progress into the league, which in this case in the DDSL which has operated in Dublin, east Meath and all of the areas affected for many years.

Two weeks ago, football was a big winner in the round of the community sports facilities fund with more than €45 million going to projects involving football alone. There were other projects that also involved football as well on top of that. We have given priority to projects that increase female participation. It is the case that clubs must comply with the Equal Status Act. There is also a new condition called the similar access policy which ensures there is no public funding for any capital facility unless men and women have similar access. The soon-to-be-announced large-scale fund will have similar requirements. Last year, as a top up to its normal funding we gave the FAI €500,000 to support women's and girls' football. This was given through Sport Ireland and has been invested in coaching, grassroots and female leadership.

On Deputy Mitchell's specific query in relation to funding, the FAI is currently in negotiations with the Government in respect of a renewed memorandum of understanding. The last memorandum of understanding concentrated mainly on governance issues. I must say that the FAI has gone from zero to almost 100 on governance issues. It has done a good job. I have no doubt but that improvement on the football side will follow from those transformations on the governance side. If we agree a future memorandum of understanding, we will require a review of the leagues and the various affiliates under the FAI to ensure it delivers stable and geographically logical leagues for girls and boys. The challenge is that these leagues have grown up almost separately over a long time involving a lot of volunteers. We must acknowledge that they are mostly run by volunteers. In the modern age, they do not offer, as we can see, a logical provision of football for children in particular and for adults - children are more of a priority. That will be a requirement for the memorandum of understanding. It makes sense for everybody and will make sense for football. I will continue to engage with the FAI to make sure this is resolved, in particular, on the commitment that this should be fully resolved early next year, which I think we have all been told by the FAI.

See this speech in context