Senior figures in Government have suggested it is likely that the Republic of Ireland’s home fixture against Israel, scheduled for October 4th, will be played at a neutral venue outside the country.

The Government’s position is that the game is a matter for the FAI, though both the Taoiseach Micheál Martin and the Tánaiste Simon Harris said over the weekend that they believed the fixture should go ahead.

However, two people with knowledge of the issue who spoke on condition of anonymity said they expected that the game would go ahead at a neutral venue, though each stressed that no decision has been made.

The Government says that the fixture is a matter for the FAI, which is an autonomous body, and it has no role in the matter. But there is an acceptance that the issue is likely to remain on the political radar, given strong public feelings about Gaza. In addition, An Garda Síochána is reported to have raised concerns about policing the fixture.

The FAI said it would fulfil the fixture but has not said whether it will be played in Dublin or at a neutral venue.

The Republic of Ireland team is due to play Israel home and away in the Uefa Nations League in late September and early October.

Yesterday the Tánaiste said that Ireland needed to “decouple” opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza from “sport and decisions made by sporting bodies”.

Harris was speaking to RTÉ after the Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald urged the FAI to give Israel “the red card” and not fulfil its fixtures against Israel.

“The actual person that would end up getting the red card or the country here would be Ireland,” Harris said.

“We have to think this thing through here,” he said.

Harris said that everyone shared “a general disgust at the actions in the Middle East and the genocidal situation in Gaza” but suggested that failing to play the game would “disadvantage” the Irish soccer team and “wouldn’t have any effect at all on Israel”.

“I just think in this situation, it’s actually the Irish soccer team that would be losing out,” he said. “And I think we have to have that sort of perspective in relation to this, and we need to get behind our Irish soccer team.”

On Saturday Minister of State Marian Harkin said she believed the fixtures between Ireland and Israel should not go ahead, a position in conflict with the Government’s.

Harkin said she was expressing a “personal view”.

Harkin initially said it was “very challenging when sport overlaps with politics”, and her view was “that it’s up to the FAI to decide about the fixture”.

However, when pressed she said: “I think that, personally, I wouldn’t go to it, and personally, if I were deciding – I’m not the FAI, I’m not Uefa, I’m not the Taoiseach, this is my personal view – yes – I wouldn’t agree that it should go ahead.

Meanwhile, the Tánaiste also said he expected that the Government would be “making progress” on the Occupied Territories Bill “this year”.

“I would push back on the idea, respectfully, that nothing has happened,” he said. “This is a complex area. We want to make sure that anything we do here can withstand legal scrutiny.”

He said the Government was “not in the business of performative legislation”.

“We want legislation that will stand up to scrutiny. The Minister is actively engaging with the Attorney General on his legal advice, and she’ll shortly update the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee”.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee previously said that passing the Bill was “a priority”.