Eoin Sheahan

We've had conversations with government ministers down through the years about the likelihood of there being a government contribution to Katie Taylor fighting at Croke Park.

Do you think this government is open to the idea of making a financial contribution to Katie Taylor's final fight ever at GAHQ?

Well, that's an optimistic note because certainly you could read previous comments, not from yourself, but maybe from other people in government, that maybe the idea of a financial contribution from the Irish government not being...

automatically forthcoming again this has also been something that's been investigated by previous governments where a cost benefit analysis was done for the 2023 fight which eventually took place in the three arena Thomas Byrne I believe was in situ at that time with your portfolio to talk about how the fact that the Champions Cup final was on in Dublin that weekend and that would have driven certain costs through the roof

Given that this government has put forward 10 million euro for the staging of an NFL game here last year and for sure has reaped plenty of financial rewards and other rewards for this country, you'd have to think the form is there for one of our own sports people to benefit from a proactive decision financially from this government.

Just before I let you go, the other big news today is that it has been confirmed that Ireland are going to play Israel in October at the Aviva Stadium.

It's something that government has been engaged in conversations around, I'm sure, for a number of weeks.

But the stall has been set out from the very start here that the FAI, the Republic of Ireland, will fulfil this fixture.

Your thoughts on UEFA not listening to the motion put forward by the FAI General Assembly and from the FAI themselves around their own statutes being broken?

Do you think...

Israel should be allowed into UEFA competition, which is, of course, the competition that Ireland are playing them in later this year.

Will you be going to the game?

Okay, good to know.

Charlie McConnelloak, appreciate your time.

Minister of State with responsibility for sports.

Thank you so much.

Cheers.

There's a minute gone in the PSG-Monaco game.

Paris Saint-Germain 3, Monaco 2 is the latest scoreline there.

Atalanta qualifying, as I mentioned earlier on, for the next round after a pretty dramatic win against Borussia Dortmund in the evening's early game.