Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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10. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the way that her Department intends to protect referees at local matches from physical and verbal abuse; the engagement that has taken place with national governing bodies and match official representatives on this issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56769/22]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Any form of abuse, discrimination or inappropriate behaviour towards anyone involved in sport is absolutely unacceptable. Referees, and all other officials, and players, are an integral part of our sporting structure and deserve to be respected for the important role they play in sport. There have unfortunately been too many examples of this abuse in recent times and it cannot be allowed to continue.

It is important that sporting organisations across all sports provide a safe environment for referees, officials and players and, where abuse and threatening behaviour is aimed at them, appropriate action must be taken by the sporting organisations.

Sporting organisations have handed out strong sanctions for violent incidents that occurred during the summer and we need to see them follow through on sanctions for anyone involved in any such incidents. A culture of mutual respect needs to be supported by decisive action on and off the field of play.

While the primary responsibility for ensuring a respectful and disciplined environment rests with individual participants and their National Governing Bodies, my officials have commenced discussions with Sport Ireland on this serious matter with a view to seeing what horizontal actions can be implemented.

At next week's Sport Ireland annual Governance conference, which will be attended by representatives of the National Governing Bodies, there will be a specific component focusing on respect for referees and officials. I will be addressing the conference and will once again be calling on National Governing Bodies to make sure that they take measures to eliminate abuse of referees and impose the sanctions that they have put in place.