Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators for all their contributions. I certainly will consider some of the suggestions carefully. I thank Senator Maria Byrne for mentioning Ms Joy Neville and note Ms Maggie Farrelly in the GAA is in a similar position. She appeared on television the other night. I spoke to her at the start of the week about some of the issues she and her colleagues have faced. It is important that we listen to referees and I will be doing that as part of this process.

My two sons play in the north Dublin schoolboys league. Many of the east Meath teams play in that league. One of the big issues was with that league and the metropolitan girls league. It is a great organisation but the referees said they had enough. Senator Wall mentioned silent sidelines and, yes, there is certainly merit in considering that, although it is difficult. I have to say, however, that there is absolutely no reason for any parent to communicate with the referee during a game. I do not see why that should be allowed in any form, particularly in an underage game. There are degrees of it when people go to stadium games but there should be no communication from parent to referee in any form in an underage game. Communication from coach to referee should also be limited to particular times. We will have to look at this as well. This is something we need to take seriously.

I have listened carefully to what Senators said about sports capital. I am probably limited in what I can do in this round. Other measures have been suggested as well, however, such as banning home fans from the next game, which happened recently in one particular club. There is another sport, which is not one of the big sports, during which if a person in any way contradicts the referee, he or she is sent off. Again, sports organisations can consider all of these issues. I hope the code of conduct, which will be ready shortly, will provide a template to do this.

Senator Wall mentioned the facilities audit, which is also relevant. That is being done by Sport Ireland at the moment. It will be ready in a couple of months. Its representatives are literally going aground the country mapping. As I understand it, it will not so much be an app as an online map of where all our facilities are. As the Senator said, we will be able to see that there is no running track or athletics field in County Longford or wherever. That is the information we want to get out there. I was talking to the chief executive at the weekend about that. The Senator's idea is not a bad one either.

I have already arranged for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and I to meet on the issue of sport facilities in the coming weeks. Our officials have already met. That is something we can put on the agenda. I want more ownership in that regard. In many of the commuter belt areas, such as those in which Senator Wall and I live, it is difficult to get land. Indeed, in the city centre of Dublin it is impossible in some areas to find places. There is really good practice in some local authorities and we need to learn from that.

Zero tolerance on racism and violence has to happen.We need to make sure that this message goes out loud and clear. We need to make sure our sporting games are places of joy and happiness. While they can be places of competition when kids reach a certain age, that has to be a competition where kids know they will win some and they will lose some. That message needs to go out loud and clear. When has a referee ever actually changed his or her decision? It is a waste of time to complain. They do not change decisions. We should get that mentality into kids as they grow up; that you just do not do it. As I said, in some sports you can be sent off for challenging the decision. If we could get that message out it would be a bit of a foundation for this.

Clearly, however, there have been much more serious incidents. I am glad the strong message I had about An Garda Síochána is getting across as well. While I do not want to get into specific incidents, there are Garda investigations under way. People need to know that this will happen in the future. Referees need to know, as they did in the terrible incident involving Senator Malcolm Byrne's county hero, Lee Chin, where that the match was abandoned, as I understand it, by the referee and the players. People took action because they felt it was the right thing to do, which it was. It sent a strong and positive message. As for the racism that is there, I repeat that our sports have been and can be extraordinary vehicles of integration for people of ethnic minority backgrounds in this country. I can only see that flourishing to a great degree. Every single sporting organisation is in that space. I very much welcome that. We are going to continue this and we need to keep highlighting it. However, there is no use in all of us standing up here every time there is an incident and condemning it. Yes, of course we condemn it but we also need to make sure that we as a Government are taking the appropriate action to be sure we can stamp it out, move it on for good and enjoy the sports that we have. I look forward to a summer of sport and a summer of good, healthy activity, participation and, where it is appropriate, competition.