The Minister for Sports has said he is in the final stages of being able to restore the majority of government funding to grassroots football.

Shane Ross said he hopes to establish a mechanism to grant around €2m in funding directly to the country's community development officers without the need to pay this money through the FAI.

The money would fund the roles of the approximately 60 community development officers nationwide and their associated programmes.

It is expected the new mechanism will be established within a fortnight.

On Friday, the FAI disclosed that the organisation has current net liabilities of more than €55m and auditors Deloitte are unable to guarantee that the governing body can continue as a going concern.

The association has been in discussions with UEFA, as well as their banking partners since the end of 2018 in an effort to provide financial stability within the organisation.

Yesterday, SIPTU said unionised staff at the FAI are in fear of job losses within the organisation.

Minister Ross told RTÉ News the funding would be channeled through a third party because "we can't trust the FAI".

He said he wanted to ensure that "clubs that suffered while the FAI prospered will not suffer anymore".

Mr Ross said the exact details of the mechanism to pay this money directly to development officers has not yet been finalised but that it would follow the model used to restore almost €200,000 of funding directly to the women's team earlier this week.

With the majority of state funding the FAI once received now set to be channelled through other bodies, asked if there would be any money left to restore to the Association itself, the Minister said he did not anticipate any immediate refund to the FAI describing it as a "basket case".

"We are not in the business of pouring money down a bottomless pit which is what the FAI is at the moment," he said.

Responding on Twitter tonight, the FAI said: "The Board of the FAI tonight wishes to inform Minister for Sport Shane Ross and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Sport that it remains available to meet, as stated at Friday's press conference."

SIPTU described this development as welcome news.

But the union said it is still eager to meet with the Government to find out what the future holds for other FAI staff.

TD Fergus O'Dowd tweeted this evening to say that he was inviting Mr Ross, Sports Ireland and the FAI to an emergency Oireachtas Committee meeting on Wednesday.

Following a request from Senator O'Ceidigh I am inviting Minister Ross, Sports Ireland and the FAI to an emergency meeting of the Oireachtas Transport, Tourism and Sport Committee on Wed. 11th December — Fergus O'Dowd (@Fergusodowd) December 8, 2019

A Dublin-based community development officer said they are delighted with the announcement which he said would protect around 60 jobs at the FAI.

Paul Keogh, a community development officer for Fingal in north Dublin, said he wanted to thank the Minister and other Government parties who had been lobbying on their behalf.

He said: "This is not about us but about the grassroots of the game who have been badly let down."

But he said he was also conscious of other colleagues who don't have the same assurances and that staff would continue to seek a meeting with the Minister to find a way forward.