Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)

As I said to Deputy Byrne a while ago, and as Deputy Ó Murchú has acknowledged, the Government has played a role in terms of the supports it has provided to the FAI. We are operating on the basis of a memorandum of understanding, MOU. A significant amount of reform has happened already. Of the 163 recommendations or conditions, 159, or 98%, are either completed or phase 1 of them is completed. The financial situation in the FAI is still challenging. Since the new MOU was signed on 17 December 2024, State funding has been increased to €6 million for the period from 2024 to 2027. The bulk of this will go towards youth field development and grants which are aimed at the grassroots of the game. The MOU also contains 16 recommendations for the FAI, including completion of outstanding recommendations and conditions from the previous MOU, the maintenance of governance reforms introduced under the previous MOU, the provision of information and reports to Sport Ireland to facilitate oversight and a cascading governance reform to affiliates and grassroots. The last recommendation is really important and was also raised by members of the Oireachtas committee last week. We have to have a cascading effect of reform. While there has been quite a considerable amount of reform with regard to numbers at the FAI itself and so on, we now need to see the cascading effect down to into the grassroots, which I know the Deputy will support.

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