{"id":13573,"date":"2025-09-22T12:53:56","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T11:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=13573"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:53:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T11:53:56","slug":"fai-must-reverse-decision-not-to-attend-oireachtas-joint-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/fai-must-reverse-decision-not-to-attend-oireachtas-joint-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"FAI must reverse decision not to attend Oireachtas Joint Committee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) must immediately reverse its decision not to attend this week\u2019s Joint Oireachtas Committee on Culture, Sport and Media, according to Social Democrats TD Sin\u00e9ad Gibney.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Gibney, who sits on the committee and is the party\u2019s spokesperson on sport, said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPart of respecting sport as a public good is demanding accountability of its associations. When considerable public funds are being allocated to an organisation like the FAI, we need to have confidence in its structures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCrucially, we deserve to know that its safeguarding measures are robust enough to keep players and staff safe. This issue is at the core of this week\u2019s committee hearing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven that the association faces questions about serious gaps in its safeguarding procedures, it is imperative it does not seek to evade scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe simply cannot have a situation where the FAI refuses to meaningfully engage with an Oireachtas committee. After a succession of controversies and governance failures, public trust in the association remains broken.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe FAI has a troubled past when it comes to its dealings with Oireachtas committees. Clearly, this pattern of behaviour \u2013 where it fails to answer questions or provide accountability \u2013 has not yet been consigned to history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>September 22, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) must immediately reverse its decision not to attend this week\u2019s Joint Oireachtas Committee on Culture, Sport and Media, according to Social Democrats TD Sin\u00e9ad Gibney. Deputy Gibney, who sits on the committee and is the party\u2019s spokesperson on sport, said: \u201cPart of respecting sport as a public good is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[549,7,497,683],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fai","category-press-release","category-sinead-gibney","category-sports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>FAI must reverse decision not to attend Oireachtas Joint Committee - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/fai-must-reverse-decision-not-to-attend-oireachtas-joint-committee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FAI must reverse decision not to attend Oireachtas Joint Committee - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) must immediately reverse its decision not to attend this week\u2019s Joint Oireachtas Committee on Culture, Sport and Media, according to Social Democrats TD Sin\u00e9ad Gibney. Deputy Gibney, who sits on the committee and is the party\u2019s spokesperson on sport, said: \u201cPart of respecting sport as a public good is [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/fai-must-reverse-decision-not-to-attend-oireachtas-joint-committee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-22T11:53:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250401-Sinead-02.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Press Officer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Press Officer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/fai-must-reverse-decision-not-to-attend-oireachtas-joint-committee\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/fai-must-reverse-decision-not-to-attend-oireachtas-joint-committee\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Press Officer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/70fcd60661593532616f9f91a0fb8db7\"},\"headline\":\"FAI must reverse decision not to attend Oireachtas Joint Committee\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-22T11:53:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/fai-must-reverse-decision-not-to-attend-oireachtas-joint-committee\/\"},\"wordCount\":216,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/fai-must-reverse-decision-not-to-attend-oireachtas-joint-committee\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250401-Sinead-02.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"FAI\",\"Press Release\",\"Sin\u00e9ad Gibney\",\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/fai-must-reverse-decision-not-to-attend-oireachtas-joint-committee\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/fai-must-reverse-decision-not-to-attend-oireachtas-joint-committee\/\",\"name\":\"FAI must reverse decision not to attend Oireachtas Joint Committee - 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