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Seanad
‹ An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

Safety in sporting stadia

Summary

Senator Blaney sought a debate on safety in sporting stadia after structural problems disrupted a match in Limerick and praised the gardaí and staff who handled the incident. Senator Buttimer then called for a debate on employment law and the tech sector in light of Twitter's treatment of workers.

I wish to call for a debate on safety in our sporting stadia, particularly in light of events in Markets Field in Limerick last Friday night. Galway was taking on Waterford in a League of Ireland decider match. The match was held up during the first half because of structural issues. Thankfully gardaí intervened quickly and got all the Waterford supporters out.

In this day and age we should not be having such issues in our stadia. Thankfully there were no injuries in this case. I commend the gardaí and personnel on the ground. This is quite worrying. I have since spoken to supporters of other League of Ireland clubs and they have concerns about other facilities across the country. It is timely that we have a debate in the House on the safety code and standards within our stadia. It would be timely for the relevant committee on tourism, culture, arts, sports and media to have an update from the FAI on all the stadia within its brief and stadia of clubs within the League of Ireland. I do not think this is good enough. It is important that we act.

It is timely that we would have a review of clubs in all sporting disciplines. We have had enough tragedies over the years with sporting facilities and other structural facilities. We do not need more. This is a call to act. I ask the Acting Leader and the committee to act. It is timely that we have a review from all sporting facilities and organisations as to the status and safety code of all their facilities.

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I ask that the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment come to the House and that we have a debate on the world of work, in particular on employment law and the situation regarding our tech industry in light of the appalling behaviour by Twitter over the weekend and especially Mr. Musk and the way he has trampled on the rights of workers. Like Senator Hoey, I wish to express my abhorrence at what has happened to the workers. There was no notification other than by an email. They were locked out of their accounts and out of the place where they work. There was no due process in terms of the 30 days' notice that we have in this country. The rights of the workers were trampled on.

Thankfully, we have robust employment laws which must be adhered to and followed. It is important that we have a debate in the House on the nature of work now and on the tech industry around jobs and job security. I very much welcome that the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, and Ministers of State, Deputies Calleary and English, met yesterday with IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland regarding the situation. It is important that we as a House stand in solidarity with the workers. While recognising that Twitter is a global corporation, we do have to recognise that we have robust employment laws in this country.

I also concur with Senator Hoey regarding the World Cup and the awarding of the contract to Qatar, especially given its denial of and complete lack of regard for the rights of people who are of our LGBT community.

As we move towards the World Cup I will be calling for a further debate on how sporting events are awarded. It is important that we send a message from the floor of the Seanad to the workers in Twitter in particular.

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