Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking this debate and for his to date on this report. As colleagues have mentioned, we have worked in a highly collegial way in producing this report and its 11 recommendations. They were built on discussions we had with the sporting bodies, referees and representatives of players. They are intended to be constructive and I acknowledge the Minister of State has taken them on board and has met the sporting organisations this week.

Sport is inclusive; it is meant to be fun. When we are talking about sports here, we would like to be talking about how we get more people involved in sport because it is good for health and good for building communities. It is correct to say that a lot of the sports organisations have done a lot in this space. It is important that we talk about their role in integration. I think of the Gorey Cricket Club, for instance, which not alone involves people from our own local community but actively involves people from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India. These are countries where cricket is a religion, even more so than the GAA in parts of Ireland. I look at my local park run or the work that is done by Croghan Athletic Club, my local athletic club in bringing people of all backgrounds and nationalities to participate.

Part of what we also need to do is to showcase those good examples and those organisations where a culture of respect is built up. Senator Warfield was right when he talked about the IRFU and rugby clubs telling their players and supporters about a culture of respect for the referee and for others. That has to apply across all sporting codes. We published this report nearly a year ago and since then, we have seen incident after incident of abuse on the pitch and online. We are all aware of the very prominent case of the abuse of the Wexford sporting legend Lee Chin at a charity game. He was subjected to racist abuse and I am glad that the GAA took tough action. The RTÉ sports pundit, Ursula Jacob, who is also from Wexford, has spoken about the levels of online abuse she has received. Unfortunately, we continue to hear these messages coming from people who are brave enough to speak out about the abuse they are receiving.

The concern I have, which has been echoed by others here, is the message that is being sent out to young people. This is continuing and is in some way acceptable and we are seeing it at young people's games, but also then about how difficult it is going to be to attract officials and people to referee. We met at committee level with a number of the sporting organisations. When we met the FAI referees, I was surprised to be told that two thirds of referees were leaving within two years of completing the referees' beginners course. These are people who volunteered to help with the game and become a referee. Within two years they have had enough. If we do not take it seriously and tackle the pitch-side and online abuse of those involved in the games, then we will continue to lose very good people.

There were clear recommendations here, which I believe we have taken on board with the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022. I suggest that the Minister of State's office should engage the newly-appointed Online Safety Commissioner to look also with engaging with the tech companies around how we can tackle some of the online abuse that exists. We were clear that we wanted powers for the Online Safety Commissioner to investigate online abuse.We need to apply pressure to a number of the social media platforms. Whatever about the abuse that may be hurled at people on the pitch, if they then go home and pick up their smartphone and it continues, that disincentivises people from continuing in sport.

We need to have all those positive messages. People spoke about messages on the positivity of sport in respect of various clubs as people enter the ground; we need the stick as well. In terms of a review of any of the sporting programmes, that would very clearly include the sports capital programme and while the national governing bodies are clear about taking action, it has to go right down to club level.

It is not just about responding to incidents. It is about being proactive about having a culture of respect and encouraging players to tackle abuse. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that we link funding to sports capital programmes to ensure codes are in place and that action is taken by clubs. I commend the Minister of State on his work. I know he has cross-party support in doing this. Sport is fun and inclusive; we have to keep that message out there.