Mr. Kieran Mulvey:

I thank the members of the committee for their invitation to discuss the heads of the sport Ireland Bill and also to discuss developments in sport that are happening in the country and internationally. We welcome the opportunity to appear before the committee, which allows us to outline to the members the activities of the Irish Sports Council in the context of the development of the 59 national governing bodies under our aegis, including the three major field sport organisations. We have been working with them in recent years in developing their organisations, developing their capacity and developing participation within the phenomenal array of sports being conducted here - apart from our own national sports.

Last week we announced a package of grants amounting to more than €27.5 million for the NGBs at an event attended by more than 150 people representing all our national governing bodies. Those present included their chief executives, national coaches, high-performance coaches and administrators. I believe we have a truly exceptional level of expertise that has developed in recent years in sports administration and international coaching for NGBs, particularly those NGBs involved very successfully in world European and Olympic competitions.

I also acknowledge the successful efforts of the Minister, Deputy Varadkar and the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, in securing a budget of €42.5 million for the Irish Sports Council for this year. We all appreciate the financial difficulties the country is undergoing and will into the future. This allocation represents a significant and large investment in our national sport. The capital programme will also continue into this year. Mr. Conway has already outlined the truly exceptional development at the National Sports Campus, which was only a dream a number of years ago, but is now becoming a reality.

In the next fortnight we will announce the grants to the three major national field sports, the Gaelic Athletic Association, Football Association of Ireland and Irish Rugby Football Union. That will be announced after our council meeting on 4 March.

In addition, we are successfully implementing the programmes of the 32 local sports partnerships, LSPs, which operate very successfully throughout the country. Despite the difficulties in recent years they have managed to raise 50% of their funding from local authorities and private sector commitments. We have also been particularly emphasising the development of the national trails office, which is an operational unit. People who have used trails throughout the country have seen how successful they are.

We are also concerned with increasing participation in sport and improving performance by Irish people. Last year we had 67 medal winners in European and world championships, which is the highest we have achieved in any single year. In this sense we are beginning to see successful delivery of the investment the Irish taxpayer has made in Irish sport in recent years and the development of the national governing bodies in regard to increasing capacity and professionalism. This has also been assisted considerably by the two organisations under our aegis, namely, the Institute of Sport based at the National Sports Campus and Coaching Ireland operating out of the University of Limerick campus. The operational and structural infrastructure of Irish sport is beginning to come together and deliver considerable achievements nationally and internationally in all competitions.

In recent years we have invested heavily in the women in sport programme. The high-performance programmes have particular funding commitments. We have been as transparent as possible in the context of sport investment and we have a copy of a document for all committee members which outlines all of the grants provided in Irish sport, how we spend our money and participation. If committee members have further questions we will be happy to answer them.

In the coming months we will examine other major issues from a strategic point of view, which may feed into the legislation. They are not specifically addressed in the draft heads as they exist, but they are vital components from a strategic point of view and they have national and international ramifications. One of these issues is adventure activities. We have been asked by the Minister to examine this matter and a member of our council, Mary Dorgan, deals with adventure activities. This area requires oversight by way of registration and we are working on it. We hope to have a report for the Minister by June. The issue may have to be addressed or alluded to in the legislation because it has been raised for a considerable period of time without being addressed. We are only waiting for an adventure sports accident to happen.

An issue developing at the Council of Europe which needs to be addressed but which is not addressed in the draft heads is manipulation of sports competitions and anti-corruption measures in sport. It may need to be discussed when we reach Committee Stage. This covers match and competition fixing. It is an international issue and we cannot be immune to this consideration. We could be one of the first countries to institute legislation to criminalise any activity in this regard. It is a strategic issue which must be addressed.

At present the Oireachtas is addressing the Betting (Amendment) Bill. It is an area which still needs to be addressed in the context of a potential income stream for the funding of sport, not alone operationally but also with regard to campus and sporting facilities. I am not in any way taking from the emphasis of the Bill on the horse and greyhound racing industries. These are nationally important industries, but so is the online and remote betting which takes place on 80% of sporting activities outside of horse racing and greyhound racing. It is an opportunity which should not be lost in terms of trying to provide additional funds for development and making operational and physical capacity provisions for sport which would not be a burden on the taxpayer. An EU report on the funding of sport was completed in December . It is an issue the committee should examine and perhaps this Bill is an opportunity. I appreciate the Betting (Amendment) Bill is well under way, but the opportunity should not be lost to examine how we may be able to fund our sports in future without placing a further burden on the taxpayer in this regard.

Mr. Treacy will address certain issues.