Basketball Ireland is proud to announce that, following the FIBA Game Officials Licensing 2021-2023 process, we have increased our allocation of FIBA Referees from three to five while also increasing our allocation of commissioners from one to two. The Allocation of seven FIBA Qualified Referees/Commissioners is a major achievement for the Federation.

A special congratulations to Paula Mullins, our newly licenced FIBA Commissioner, and Niamh Callaghan & Jamie Dooley, our newly licenced FIBA Referees. Thank you to Emma, Declan, Maciej & David for assisting the newly licenced officials in their journey to getting the FIBA licence, and for continuing to represent Basketball Ireland within the FIBA Game Officials Licensing system.

We also offer our thanks to FIBA National Instructor Paul Dempsey for the time and effort he put into this process, as well as the CTOC and Gerry Kelly. Thank you for the work you do to continue to raise the standard among all our technical officials.

Paul Dempsey spoke on the confirmation of the new FIBA Game Officials' License holders in Basketball Ireland.

“I’d like to congratulate our seven FIBA Referees and Commissioners on being awarded their FIBA Licence 2021/23, with special mention to those receiving their licence for the first time. To increase our allocation of FIBA Referees and Commissioners, from four to seven, is recognition of the work being carried out by the federation in relation to our Technical Officials. This is a proud time for each of the members, existing and new, and is the culmination of two years of hard work, dedication, learning and self- sacrifice. It also comes at an exciting and successful time for basketball in Ireland on the international stage".

This builds on the accomplishments made earlier this Summer, when five Basketball Ireland table officials passed their FIBA Table Official Licensing Exams. These table officials were Norma Thompson, Amy Quirke, Adrianne Prendergast, Michelle Summersgill and Amy Rooney.

The concept of the current FIBA Game Officials' Licensing system was first presented to the FIBA Technical Commission in 2013. The system has been successfully implemented for the first two periods 2017-2019 and 2019-2021 and has yielded around 800 international referees and 300 commissioners in each cycle. To learn more, click here.