Government to officially back bid to host Euro 2028 

Ireland manager Stephen Kenny and Matt Doherty after a match versus Portugal.  The  governing bodies of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England decided last month that a bid for the Euros is more feasible than for the 2030 World Cup. Picture: James Crombie

The Government will today decide to officially back the FAI's involvement in a bid to host football's 2028 European Championships. 

Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin and Minister of State Jack Chambers will ask the Government to approve the issuing of a letter of support to the FAI for its submission to the bid alongside Scotland, Wales, England, and, Northern Ireland. 

The five governing bodies decided last month that a bid for the Euros is more feasible than for the 2030 World Cup. Expressions of interest must be given to the sport's European governing body Uefa by Wednesday.

Sources said Ms Martin will tell the Cabinet that government support for a bid would likely pave the way to Ireland hosting the tournament. Uefa has invited bids for both the 2028 and 2032 tournaments and the Italian Football Federation has said it will only bid for 2032.

No other bids have been announced meaning it is more likely than not that the joint UK and Ireland offering will be the sole bid for EURO 2028.

Uefa ended the Russian bid in response to its invasion of Ukraine, while Turkey dropped out.

It is not yet clear how many games Ireland will host or whether the games will be played outside Dublin, but ministers were told last month that between Ireland and Northern Ireland, a quarter of the games could be played on the island.

Cabinet will be told that the tournament would expect to inject "hundreds of millions of euro" in extra spending here, depending on the number of games. Uefa has not yet announced if the tournament will be 24 or 32 teams. Uefa will shortly release a bid book that will outline details of the tournament including its size.

It is estimated that half of the spectators would originate outside the UK and Ireland, meaning around 147,000 non-UK and Ireland fans travelling here for the tournament.

There is no staging or bidding fee for this competition and the majority of costs would be incurred when the event itself takes place in 2028 including security and policing, stadiums upgrading and public transport.

Cabinet will also hear proposals that would allow technological universities to access State borrowing to build student accommodation.

The proposals will be brought as part of the Higher Education Authority Bill by Further Education Minister Simon Harris.

Up until now, technological universities have been unable to access State finance to build purpose-built student accommodation but the new legislation will ensure the Housing Finance Agency can lend to technological universities.

The Bill will also provide for the establishment of the Apprenticeship Office.

Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien will also bring a memo for information on the Water Sector Transformation Talks. Two days of talks will take place at the Workplace Relations Commission around the plan which would see 3,200 local authority water sector staff transferred to work directly for Irish Water.

The Government’s Policy Paper on Water Sector Transformation, published last February, requires stakeholders to prepare for the integration of water services within Irish Water’s organisational structure, though trade unions have resisted the moves.

The talks this week will centre on human resources and staffing matters.