The continued growth of women's football in Ireland has been given a boost thanks to the "significant investment" awarded to the FAI by the government.
The €200,000 grant, aimed at funding elite player development of the national team, will aid the running of the Ireland women's senior team, go towards operational running costs, and enable an increase in training and match programmes to maximise contact hours.
The funding, which was awarded by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, will, according to the FAI, enable further progression on the elite player pathway for women's players.
In April, the women's team staged a protest in relation to the conditions within the national team, where they claimed they were treated like "fifth-class citizens", forced to share tracksuits with underage teams and change in airport toilets.
The matter has since been resolved, and today the FAI welcomed the funding with High Performance director Ruud Dokter acknowledging the importance of the extra funding, which will allow the association to push forward with future plans.
"This marks a significant investment from government to women's football and will greatly assist the ongoing development of our game," said Dokter.
"Our teams are performing extremely well with our senior women's team starting their EURO 2019 campaign with a win away to Northern Ireland, our Under-17 women's team through to the Elite round of qualifying and the Under-19 team travelling to Netherlands next week for their qualifying round games.
"Off the pitch, the rise in standards of coach education, growing participation numbers in grassroots camps, and the steady progress of the Continental Tyres Women's National League indicates that we are moving in the right direction.
Ireland women's coach Colin Bell said: "Step by step, we will advance the development of our players individually which will lead to the general overall improvement."
