Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate Deputy Fitzpatrick's questions. There is strong bilateral engagement between the Department and the Northern Ireland equivalent and its officials. The North-South Ministerial Council is the forum where we regularly engage. There was a meeting prior to Christmas. I am not sure of the month, but I think it was November. There was due to be one in the last number of weeks but it was cancelled because of the current circumstances in the North. I agree that North-South co-operation on sport has a major role, if one considers sport as a space for peace building in communities in the North. One thing we intend to do through the shared island unit in the Department of the Taoiseach is to have that conversation on advancing co-operation on sport and to use that unit to advance the use of sport as a pillar to build peace. I am ambitious about that in particular.

The Deputy asked about golf and the broader reopening. We were only in a position in recent weeks to start reopening sport. Golf Ireland has issued guidance on that, which the Deputy mentioned. I am hopeful. The Government is meeting again next week. We have brought forward other decisions, for example, on allowing young people to return to training next week. The Government decided that. We want to see a broader reopening of sport and to prioritise that because it is outdoors and is important for physical and mental health. We also want to catch up on lost time. I recognise the difficulty the suspension of sport has caused for so many people over the last number of months, but we are ambitious to prioritise that in the Government decision next week.