Aviva and Croke Park likely to be Ireland's only stadiums hosting Euro 2028

Aviva Stadium looks set to be part of the Euro 2028 hosting stadia. Picture: Charles McQuillan/Getty

Only Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, and possibly Croke Park, are likely to be involved In Ireland’s participation in Euro 2028 and the Government will not have to financially underwrite the bid.

The Government has approved a proposal to back the Football Association of Ireland’s (FAI) bid to co-host the 2028 European Championships, but it appears that the need for Irish stadia is "very limited".

At Cabinet, Sport Minister Catherine Martin and minister Jack Chambers received Government approval to issue a letter of support to the FAI for its submission of an expression of interest to Uefa to jointly host Euro 2028 with the football associations of Scotland, Wales, England, and Northern Ireland.

Final bid dossier

They also asked the Government to note that the department will continue to work with the other Government and football partners to advance a final bid dossier for submission in the spring of 2023 and the ministers will bring further memoranda to Government as required during that process.

Earlier in the year, the football associations in Britain and Ireland indicated their intent to examine a bid to jointly host the Uefa European Championships in 2028. Ireland was due to host part of Euro 2020.

The Government said it is well aware of the significance and scale of the tournament and what a positive experience it could be to jointly host it in 2028.

In order to move forward, the ministers and the Government needed to have a clearer understanding of the costs and benefits of hosting the event before making any decision to support a bid, said a statement to the Irish Examiner.

Uefa’s closing date for the receipt of expressions of interest from football associations is Wednesday and no other bids are expected. The Government said it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time until the application process is complete.

Labour spokesperson for sport Áodhán Ó Riordán said the bid was the FAI "chasing the shiny thing on the hill" and questioned whether it was the right move for Irish football.

Solidarity TD Mick Barry said he was keen to see how grassroots football would benefit from the bid. He added that he would "like to see a couple of games held in Cork".

Redress board

Also at Cabinet, ministers heard that the redress board overseeing payments to children abused in the care of the State has received 16,662 applications, and the total value of awards made was just over €970m.

The average value of awards made is €62,249 and the largest award is €300,500.

Education Minister Norma Foley asked Government to note the 2019 Annual Report of the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB) prior to its presentation to the Oireachtas.

The RIRB was established under the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002 to make financial awards to help those who were abused as children while resident in certain institutions in the State.

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue got approval from Cabinet to prioritise the drafting of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022 to create an office to monitor transparency in the food supply chain. The bill will establish a new independent statutory authority to be known as the Office for Fairness and Transparency in the Agri-Food Supply Chain.