Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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59. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will provide an update on the joint Ireland and UK bid to host the UEFA EURO 2028 competition. [3558/23]

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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The football associations in the UK and Ireland announced in February 2022 their intent to bid to jointly-host the UEFA European Championships in 2028.

Ireland had been due to host part of the 2020 iteration of those championships and so I am well aware of the significance and scale of the tournament and what a positive experience it would be to jointly host it in 2028.

On 22 March 2022, the Government decided to support an Expression of Interest from the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) in jointly hosting the EURO 2028 tournament. To that end, my Department has been engaging closely with the FAI, Dublin City Council, other Government Departments and agencies and UK partners in order to better evaluate the case for bidding for Euro 2028.

Following an extensive examination of the costs and benefits to Ireland of hosting the tournament, Government decided on Tuesday 15 November 2022 to support the FAI’s submission of a joint preliminary bid with UK partners for EURO 2028. Preliminary bid dossiers for the bid were submitted to UEFA on 16 November 2022.

The Department is currently working with the FAI, Dublin City Council, other Government Departments and agencies together with our UK partners to prepare as strong as possible a bid and to host a fantastic tournament for all partners in 2028.

There is extensive work ongoing in the short time available and it is the intention to bring the outcome of the Department’s further examination of all aspects of the project to Government for a decision prior to UEFA’s April 2023 deadline for the submission of a Final Bid Dossier.