Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

At a recent GAA congress, Uachtarán Chumann Lúthchleas Gael, Mr. Larry McCarthy, made comments about the amount of abuse directed at amateur referees, players, etc., within the association and the need for that to be tackled. My reason for putting forward this amendment is that we would engage with the Federation of Irish Sport. For clarity, the Federation of Irish Sport comprises 110 national governing bodies and sporting organisations across the country that have possibly more than 1 million members. By engaging with all those sporting organisations and asking them to adapt their codes of conduct, which all those organisations have and which all their members sign up to, I think this will give strength to and compliance with online safety. It would mean that all those organisations would actually put supports in place for any of their members who suffer from online abuse. They would be able to tackle any abuse that does take place online because they have it as part of the codes of conduct within their sporting organisations. As I said, the national governing bodies go from the Aldi Community Games right to Weightlifting Ireland and comprise more than 1 million members. It is an easy way of getting all the sporting organisations that represent so many people on board to monitor online safety within their own membership. As I said, changing and adapting their own codes of conduct to comply with this Bill would mean that they would be able to impose sanctions on anyone who breaks the relevant code.