Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to call for a debate on safety in our sporting stadia, particularly in light of events in Markets Field in Limerick last Friday night. Galway was taking on Waterford in a League of Ireland decider match. The match was held up during the first half because of structural issues. Thankfully gardaí intervened quickly and got all the Waterford supporters out.

In this day and age we should not be having such issues in our stadia. Thankfully there were no injuries in this case. I commend the gardaí and personnel on the ground. This is quite worrying. I have since spoken to supporters of other League of Ireland clubs and they have concerns about other facilities across the country. It is timely that we have a debate in the House on the safety code and standards within our stadia. It would be timely for the relevant committee on tourism, culture, arts, sports and media to have an update from the FAI on all the stadia within its brief and stadia of clubs within the League of Ireland. I do not think this is good enough. It is important that we act.

It is timely that we would have a review of clubs in all sporting disciplines. We have had enough tragedies over the years with sporting facilities and other structural facilities. We do not need more. This is a call to act. I ask the Acting Leader and the committee to act. It is timely that we have a review from all sporting facilities and organisations as to the status and safety code of all their facilities.