Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I cannot emphasise enough just how important academies are to the future of Irish football. At the very top of the scale, we just need to see where our national team is right now in the international rankings and look at recent defeats to so-called lesser teams. At grassroots level, the opportunities that were there before Brexit no longer exist. Irish players cannot go across the water to larger academies and learn their trades like how it used to be done. Those young academy players are here. They want to play; they want to learn. They want the opportunity to represent their club and, ultimately, their country to the very best of their abilities. Without football academies up and down this country being adequately resourced, however, they are never going to reach their full potential. Some of the significant moments of modern Irish history have been because of football. Let us think of Euro 88, Italia 90, USA 94; events that unified everybody in every part of this country and lifted the mood of the population and brought joy and belief in ourselves as a people. If we want to see moments like that again, we need to start the process and invest now.

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