Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Toomey.

I want to make one or two comments in response to Dr. Gaynor. I could not agree with her more that children do not live in schools; they live in communities. Therefore, we all have a responsibility in that regard.

Mr. Toomey spoke about getting all stakeholders involved. I wish him luck in trying to have facilities shared, as it can be difficult to achieve. I know that at local level we try to submit a municipal application for sports capital grants, but people want to make their own applications. However, Mr. Toomey is right. There are examples up and down the country of schools, in particular, opening their facilities in the evening which is hugely beneficial to communities.

I am very involved in ladies football and since last weekend the very proud mother of a county champion, but ladies football and ladies' sport in general are often forgotten. We talk about the GAA, but the GAA is not the Ladies Gaelic Football Association. We use the GAA as an umbrella brand, but it only deals with men. We have to remember the Camogie Association and the Women's Football Association.

On how to deal with cases of concussion, we had a scary incident in a semi-final some weeks ago in which a young girl was concussed and there was not even a bottle of holy water available. There is an onus on clubs which are struggling, particularly in women's sport, to raise money because they do not capture the same generosity from communities as men's football to provide first aid facilities, training and so on. If we are serious about women participating in sport, we have to make sure they are resourced.

I thank everybody for his or her informative and challenging presentation. This was our fourth meeting focusing on these important and challenging issues. The delegates' submissions will be important to us as we continue our deliberations and prepare a report for the Minister for Health. I thank everybody for his or her contribution.