The Junior Sports Minister says Republic of Ireland fans were entitled to hold their tennis ball protest.
In the 33rd minute of last night's 1-0 win over Georgia some fans hurled the balls on to the pitch.
It was in protest of John Delaney's continued involvement with the FAI in light of recent revelations.
Brendan Griffin says you can't stop people smuggling tennis balls into stadiums and holding a non-violent protest.
Nothing better than Glenn Whelan horsing a tennis ball into the stand after the goal pic.twitter.com/LkcVuY0bIm
— Jeremy Lyons (@Jeremy_P_Lyons) March 26, 2019
He said "People are entitled if they want to protest like that".
Junior Minister Griffin refused to be drawn on whether John Delaney should step aside from the FAI altogether.
Sport Ireland is examining the situation at the moment.
Griffin says he'll be able to comment further on the matter when Sport Ireland provides a substantive response to the department.
