Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like Senator Carrigy, I wish to raise the violence and abuse on our football pitches and other sports fields. As a mother of young children who live for football and partaking in sport, I see a growing amount of violence on our football pitches. We saw last month in Wicklow a so-called melee on a football pitch. When does a melee turn into assault? When does this violence turn into something real? I do not want my sons growing up thinking it is acceptable to box or elbow someone on a football pitch and hurt them because it is on a football pitch. The GAA, the FAI and all our other national governing bodies really have to sit back and examine how we are going to police - I do not want to use the word "police" - our football and sport. There is no sport in violence or abusive language. That is not sport, and we really have to start examining this because, otherwise, someone will get hurt very badly on a football pitch or other sports field. We have to stand back and say "enough is enough". As a parent, I would be mortified to think that our referees will not referee a children's football match because of abuse. We have to learn to respect one another. We all have to take a role in this and our national governing bodies have to take a really strong role in it.