552. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport to confirm his recent public comments that he supports a fan boycott of the forthcoming soccer matches against Israel but opposes a boycott by the FAI; his reasons for this position; the way in which it is consistent that individual citizens should boycott the games in circumstances where he believes an association funded in large part by the taxpayer should not; and if he would support boycotts of other sporting events where Ireland compete against countries accused of human rights abuses are taking part, for example the Olympic Games in which China will be participating despite holding over 1 million Uighur Muslims in concentration camps in the Xinjiang province. [45525/26]

National Governing Bodies of sport (NGBs) and international sporting federations, such as the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), are independent, autonomous bodies, responsible for the governance of their own sports, including the organisation of sporting fixtures, whether in domestic or international competitions. Neither the Government, my Department, nor Sport Ireland, have a role in deciding on the organisation of such fixtures.

The FAI is within its rights to decide to fulfil both fixtures against Israel in September and October, in accordance with its obligations as a member of UEFA and I support the FAI's right to make this decision. In recent days, it has also been confirmed that UEFA has agreed to a request from the FAI that the home leg of the fixtures on 4 October be played abroad at a neutral venue and behind closed doors

My own personal position on attending the game is not relevant with the recent confirmation that the home leg will not be played in Ireland.

The exclusion of countries from international sporting competitions is fundamentally a matter for international federations and we have seen this in effect in recent years with the exclusion of Russia and Belarus from a range of events. A unilateral boycott of events risks isolating Irish sport with negative impacts primarily only for Irish athletes and that is why multilateralism must be the starting point in any such debate.