Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will pick up where Deputy McLellan left off. We have learned quite a lot about the child SCAT3 in this discussion. Is this in use and is it applicable to all the sports and sporting bodies we are talking to? We have heard about the need for greater pitchside and trackside awareness. We need to have a training programme for this. We heard some references to different sporting bodies having a training programme. Under the Healthy Ireland initiative, ABII suggested one training programme for all sports, especially for schools and school-age players. I would like to hear more about the witnesses' views on this. We heard about an example from South Africa called Boksmart which offers good guidelines to schools.

When we are drawing conclusions based on these hearings, one conclusion should be about raising awareness, but we should also make sure we are not sending conflicting or separate messages. My background is in youth work and girl guides, and we do a standardised first aid course along with other youth workers, because we are doing activities with young people. In New Zealand there is certification for these types of courses. Is that something we should consider? I am trying to put on my hat as a policy-maker, legislator and influencer to try to see what we can do. We have a role as legislators but we do not want to produce any unintended consequences in what we do. On the issue of helmets, we see that in certain sports, mandatory helmets can lead to risk compensation whereby young people think they are invincible because they have a helmet. This can lead to more injuries because they have this weapon.

Do the witnesses have any pointers for us? Are there areas where legislation is needed? What are their views on having a combined training programme or certification level that would be available to all schools, coaches, parents who are actively involved and other youth workers and organisations, such as has been suggested by ABII under the Healthy Ireland initiative?