Taoiseach Micheal Martin claims the Government can help to fund a joint World Cup 2030 bid and deliver better funding to SSE Airtricity League clubs.
Mr Martin believes the onus is on the Government to improve funding for the League, and will aid any shortfall in the development of academies if the FAI prioritises that area.
"We can do both," said Martin when questioned on Newstalk's Off the Ball about getting involved in a World Cup bid and aiding the League.
"I would have been involved in Turner's Cross soccer pitch long before we any of this, where we built up Turner's Cross as a playing facility.
"I remember Turner's Cross as a young lad and there wasn't a seat in the place, you had a tin shed - literally a shed for the players to got out in.
"Now the Munster Football Association came up with the plans and we progressed it. Tallaght Stadium for Shamrock Rovers...
"Governments have provided funding but I think we should up it a bit in terms of the league itself, the current funding.
"Sporting expenditure isn't huge, yet the value is enormous. I think the model of soccer has changed, it puts the League of Ireland in real difficulty.
"We have two or three clubs every year (dominating) - what I mean by that is the Dundalks, the Shamrock Rovers, we used to be there - Cork City - and we'll be back.
"But the funding underpinning it is very difficult and then there's work to be done in the schoolboys league, some of the academies have taken from the clubs in terms of players."
With concerns over what happens to young players not having a cross-channel route to develop their talent in the Brexit era, the Taoiseach said that the Government will intervene to help out with funding.
"I think we can, and if the association prioritises, which I don't think it did in the past, we can step up to the plate on that because I think that is important, a sustained underpinning of the operation," he said.
.png?w=600)
