Over recent months, my officials and I have been engaging with Sport Ireland, along with the FAI, GAA and IRFU, to seek their assistance, on behalf of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, in providing emergency short term accommodation for people seeking humanitarian shelter in Ireland. The sporting organisations have responded positively to our request and have engaged with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
Officials from that Department have engaged directly with Sport Ireland regarding the use of the National Indoor Arena as emergency accommodation and, on Friday 2 September, Sport Ireland announced that it would be making the National Indoor Athletics Training Centre in the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena available for a period of up to six weeks to assist in this humanitarian effort.
While I understand that this will have a temporary impact on regular users of the facility, I am grateful for the support shown by the wider sporting community in making all those fleeing conflict feel welcome to Ireland. Sport Ireland has been in contact with all impacted users of the facility and remains available to answer queries from users who will be impacted over the next few weeks.
