Paul McAuliffe
Question:101. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media what steps her Department has taken to tackle abuse of referees during matches. [34738/23]
View answerThursday, 13 July 2023
Questions (101)
Written answers
Any form of abuse, discrimination or inappropriate behaviour towards anyone involved in sport is absolutely unacceptable. Referees, and all other officials, players and coaches, are an integral part of our sporting structures and deserve to be respected for the important role they play in sport.
It is important that sporting organisations across all sports provide a safe environment for referees, officials, players and coaches and, where abuse and threatening behaviour is aimed at them, appropriate action must be taken by the sporting organisations.
While it is acknowledged that the primary responsibility for ensuring a safe, respectful and disciplined sporting environment rests with individual participants and their National Governing Bodies, it is important for the Government and Sport Ireland to assist and to take whatever actions we can in order to ensure that integrity is a value and behaviour evident across all levels of sport.
On May 9, I conveyed a meeting of leading executives from the FAI, IRFU and the GAA, together with Dr. Una May, CEO of Sport Ireland, to discuss how we can tackle abuse of officials.
In order to assist sporting bodies to tackle this issue, Sport Ireland convened a working group to develop a national Code of Conduct template across Irish sport, incorporating respect for, and the elimination of abuse towards referees, officials, coaches and players. Sporting organisations can then use the template Code of Conduct to promote good practice within their sport. This is an important action which will greatly assist sporting bodies in addressing the issue of abuse of referees and officials.
It is anticipated that this template will be circulated by Sport Ireland to sporting organisations this month.