Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I also thank the witnesses. I must declare an interest. My experience of playing with an LGBT sports club as opposed to an ordinary club is that we are free to be ourselves. We are more likely to go to the clubs and bars we normally go to with our team mates rather than having separate nights out. In any city around the world we can probably find an LGBT sports team so it helps people to root themselves in a new place very quickly. There is almost a touch of utopia about our sports teams.

My experience of playing in an FAI-accredited league, namely, the United Churches Football League, is that it forces the rest of the league to do a bit better because other teams are conscious that they are playing against an LGBT sports team and homophobia is not accepted. It also breaks down the stereotype to the effect that LGBT people do not play sports. There is an issue that LGBT people drop out of sports and the witnesses have spoken about personal experience. The witnesses have called for funding for LGBT sports. Is there a model that Sport Ireland uses that could be replicated? What would the money be used for? Would it be used for LGBT sports or the wider sports community?