Mark Duffy (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Taoiseach to Seanad Éireann. Following Senator Flaherty’s contribution, I will focus on the shared island unit. The unit has a €2 billion fund, which is primarily focused on investment in infrastructure and education and bringing people closer and bringing them together.

Before entering politics, I worked on a project in Northern Ireland, which was the creation of the all-island league. It was a proposal to unite the League of Ireland and the Irish League. There is a divided community in the North, for obvious reasons, but the Good Friday Agreement has laid great ground for reconciliation and peace. Sport unites us all and we all enjoy it but football in particular, North and South, is one of the common languages of both communities. Association football is one of very few shared interests or hobbies, but football is at a low base on the island, North and South. We have had improvements in recent years in the League of Ireland and the recent investment of €3 million provided for the academies is welcomed as part of creating a football economy on the island. The football economy across Europe is worth €38 billion annually. The prize money for winning the League of Ireland is €125,000, but winning one UEFA Conference League game is worth €400,000. The financial disparity for clubs is pronounced.

To go back to the shared island unit, an opportunity exists to unite communities through sport and work towards a more cohesive society across the island. That could be very powerful and impactful and could perhaps be done, starting with the women’s leagues, North and South. We have seen great examples in rugby and how that sport brings people together and takes the politics and heat out of it. I have done a lot of work on the project I mentioned. It was led by Kieran Lucid and we had a board including Brendan Dillon, former Republic of Ireland football manager Brian Kerr, Stafford Reynolds and Catherine Toolan. We created a model that proposed keeping the independence of both leagues for the first half of the season and then, in the second half if the season, playing on an all-island basis. There are models that can keep independence and keep the European places while also playing on an all-island basis.

I remember being in the Linfield supporters club talking to supporters who had brilliant memories of travelling down to Cork to play in the Setanta Cup, which they won playing away against Cork City FC. That is the power of football and of sport. If we want to bring people together in the North, the shared island unit is a great opportunity to do that through sport. I would welcome the Taoiseach’s consideration of any such proposals. He has my full support and I will support in every way I can anything we can do to contribute to make that happen.