Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media to discuss the abuse directed towards referees, officials and players in sport and discuss Ireland in a Creative Europe

The first session will be a roundtable discussion on the elimination of any and all abuse directed toward referees, officials, and players in sport and will include officials from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media and representatives from Sport Ireland and the Federation of Irish Sport.

The second session will discuss Ireland in a Creative Europe: Ireland’s participation in and access to the Creative Europe Programme 2021-2027 with representatives from Screen Ireland / Fís Éireann, Creative Europe Ireland and The Arts Council.

Speaking ahead of the meeting at 1:30pm in Committee Room 1 of Leinster House Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Niamh Smyth said: "The Committee looks forward to these meetings. Our first discussion will allow us to gain further insight into the mistreatment of referees, officials and players when taking part in sport and to hear from the stakeholders involved on how best to stamp this practice out.

Our second discussion at the meeting on Wednesday will focus on Ireland in a Creative Europe and will bring the Committee up to speed on Ireland’s participation in and access to the Creative Europe Programme 2021 – 2027. This is the EU Commission’s flagship programme to support the culture and audiovisual sectors and has a budget of €2.44 billion across Members States to invest towards cultural diversity and the creative sectors. This engagement is particularly timely given we celebrated Europe Day this week.  This year Europe Day is of particular note as the conflict in Ukraine underlines the importance of the ideals of peace and prosperity upon which the European Union is based. In addition, today marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of the referendum in which Ireland’s people chose to join what is now the European Union.”

The meeting in Committee Room 1 can be viewed live on Oireachtas TV.

The Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media has 14 Members, nine from the Dáil and five from the Seanad.

Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.