Catherine Martin said she would support an increase in the betting levy if it was used to increase funding for sport.

Ireland.- The Irish sports Minister Catherine Martin has said that she would support an increase in the betting levy if it could be used to increase funding for sports. However, Martin told the Dáil that any rise in the levy would be for the minister of finance to decide.

Martin spoke after Labour Dublin Bay North TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin put forward a motion for investment in Irish football facilities by increasing the betting levy by 3 per cent in the 2024 budget. Former Irish international players Niall Quinn, Paddy Mulligan and Turlough O’Connor attended the debate in the public gallery.

Martin noted that money raised from the betting levy currently goes into general exchequer funds and is not ringfenced for particular purposes. However, she said: “I would of course support any measures such as an increase in the betting levy, which could in turn feed to increase funding for sport more generally.”

For his part, Ó Ríordáin said “It’s time for cold hard cash”, describing football as a game unpopular with “official Ireland, but loved by Irish people” and that had suffered from underinvestment and poor administration. He said the reasons for this “have always been rooted in class” but that Irish football was now at a “historic moment” with the League of Ireland seeing sell-out crowds, the women’s league going semi-professional and the women’s national team take part in the World Cup in Australia.

The FAI is seeking €863m over 15 years to make up for a lack of basic facilities for young players, particularly girls. It wants the Irish government to provide 60 per cent (€517 million) of the funding with local authorities and the association itself to make up 20 per cent each.

However, Fine Gael TD Frank Feighan said Irish football needed to “get their act together” and be “like the GAA”.

“The one thing that governments want and what Ministers want is good governance and data … if you have that, there is loads of money out there,” he said.

Ireland: campaign calls for all-island safer gambling initiative

Meanwhile, a campaign is pushing for joint work on gambling harm in the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. Both countries are in the process of updating their gambling regulations.

Pete and Sadie Keogh from Fermanagh, whose son died due to gambling-related suicide, are pushing for a new education programme in the two countries. They saw the launch of a pilot project with Gambling with Lives in Northern Ireland in 2021. Now Fine Gael senator Emer Currie has invited the Keoghs and Gambling with Lives to the Oireachtas to meet TDs and senators to discuss the issue.

See also: Irish Department of Justice supports Gambling Regulation Bill