Vincent P Martin (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Cathaoirleach well.

Sport has had a good airing this week and it can be the heartbeat of a community. I know we are doing our best but it is important when sport returns in any shape or form. We should really exhaust all possible channels to ensure we can restart sport while putting health and safety first. My wish this morning, as the House rises for the summer, is discuss the Leinster schools senior cup rugby final for 2020. These children, or young adults, gave six years of their lives to this. We had the spectacle of a first-ever Kildare final between Clongowes Wood and Newbridge College, which only recently celebrated the 50th anniversary since last winning the cup in 1970. These are kids or young adults and I hope they will take places in college but there is a window of opportunity in the next month for this match to happen.

I say this as the Leinster provincial team is training, along with its academy and under-20 team. Is there any way at all that the Irish Rugby Football Union, IRFU, could give those youths a well-deserved day in the sun, even if few people are present? It could be an all-Kildare derby that would provide such a spectacle. It would be the highlight of their young sporting lives. I know the IRFU will do its best but is there any feasible or viable way to put on that match? It means so much to the young people, who are now adults. They have worked for six years to get to the promised land and have their moment in the sun. The pandemic has ripped it away from them. It is late but perhaps it is not too late. Could the IRFU look at this again to see if it is possible to put on the match? It would make many families, the teams and supporters so happy if we could defeat the pandemic this way. If there is a way of doing this while adhering to health and safety advice, it would be a spectacular boost to the young adults as they enter the next chapter of their lives. This chapter is just not closed yet and they are hoping against hope that the match can be put on. I will write to the IRFU and do everything I can to see if there is any way the match can be played.