Increasing betting levy would boost Irish football, says Andrews

Sinn Féin Senator Chris Andrews has challenged the government to put their money where their mouth is and fund Irish football.

Speaking in the Seanad, Andrews noted that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael both pledged to increase the tax on betting from 2% to 3% and use that windfall to fund Irish sports.

Andrews pointed out that the manifesto pledge was entirely absent in the Programme for Government.

“This commitment strangely vanished from the Programme for Government with no mention of the betting tax or additional capital investment in sport infrastructure and academies for Irish football”

The Sinn Féin Senator noted that a 1% increase in the betting levy would raise approximately €50 million in funding for Irish sport.

Andrews called the increase “modest” and would help address what he calls the “chronic” underfunding of Irish sport in recent decades.

He said that the betting levy in Ireland is the lowest in the European Union at 2% and used Portugal as a frame of reference.

Portugal’s betting levy is 3.5%, which translates to €30.3 million a year for the Portuguese Football Association.

Considering Portugal’s reputation as a footballing powerhouse despite its population of 16 million, Andrews said that there is a clear template for Ireland to follow.

“Ireland is simply not matching this level of investment and is falling further and further behind as a result; if Ireland has the ambition to compete at the same level as Portugal internationally, we have to commit to building a football industry from the grassroots up.”

He said that the proposed rise in the betting levy was “modest,” and questioned why Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were keen to embrace it in their manifestos only to backtrack on it once they got back into power.

Minister of State at the Department of Finance Robert Troy said that such matters were a matter for the Exchequer and that the government is already supporting the League of Ireland.

The Fianna Fáil TD said that between 2020 and 2023, the government paid the FAI €5.8 million per year as part of developing Irish football.

As far as the betting levy is concerned, Troy said that the levies on betting companies are decided in the Budget process.

Andrews criticised Troy, and the government at large, for “bowing at the altar of the gambling industry.”

“I find it hard to take that the discredited and abusive greyhound industry gets €19 million a year, and Irish football and other sports get hardly a fraction of that figure.”

“Governments will talk about sports capital and individual funding projects, as the Minister of State has done, but what is needed is sustained and reliable long-term funding, not once-off payments. That would be helped by increasing the betting levy by 1%,” he said.