Mr. Philip Browne:

No. It is funded by the IRFU. We would welcome such funding. We sometimes find that there could be a little more joined-up thinking between the Departments of Health, Transport, Tourism and Sport and Children and Youth Affairs in availing of the ability of the three major sporting organisations to provide certain supports and resources through our channels. The great advantage we have as organisations is that we have the infrastructure to access the cohort of the population that the three Departments are all looking to access. We are thrashing around looking for funding to roll out programmes that are part and parcel of our social responsibility to our children and to the people who fall under our wing. I think this probably needs to be looked at a little more carefully.

Regarding gender quotas, people ask about what we mean by "suitably qualified candidates". The skill sets to which I referred were rugby skill sets in terms of understanding the game, how clubs work and how clubs and the game fit within the structure of Irish rugby. One of our main issues is that we have few ladies involved in coaching and administration. The few that we have are very good. Without having to change the laws or structure and governance of our game and reverting to our clubs and branches to ask them to tear our governance up and start again, it is unlikely that we will have sufficient numbers of women in the club game coming through the branches up to the union committee within the proposed three-year period. It probably takes the average IRFU committee member ten to 15 years to get there. They have gone through running the minis in clubs, coaching in clubs, handling administration in clubs, moving into their provinces to run competition and disciplinary structures and so on before being elected. We are conscious of this issue. Last year, we used one of the two co-options allowed under our governance to bring Ms Mary Quinn, who has been an effective administrator in Leinster's women's rugby, onto the IRFU committee.

We are starting to see some changes. We have women's committees in each of the four provinces and women are involved in those. I am confident that women will come through the system, but if we tear it up, with what alternative will we end up? Will this make any difference? Deputy Munster probably took me up wrong regarding evidence. What I meant was that there was no evidence to suggest that not having women on the IRFU committee had held the women's game back. As far as we are concerned, the roll-out of our rugby programmes is for women, men, girls and boys. We draw no distinction between them.

We would have some difficulty in reaching a quota of two thirds, one third or whatever it is within a three-year period without ripping up our governance structure. That said, we have a working party that is examining our governance. Due to our democratic and federal structure, that party comprises representatives from each of the four branches. The party will make its recommendations. This is one of the issues that it is examining, given that it needs to be addressed.

All team sports face concerns about the club game and the grassroots level. Solitary sports have grown in recent years, creating difficulties for team sports. Mr. Duffy referred to population movements within and outside Ireland. They have caused difficulties for all major sports. We have done a great deal of work with the ESRI regarding the population. When one compares the numbers playing the game with population trends, rugby is probably holding its own. However, the overall population in the 17-25 age bracket is declining. Inevitably, fewer people in that bracket will be playing sport or be available to play. The good news is that there is a demographic bulge coming up through the system. The three major sports have to gear themselves up and get fit to deal with that bulge and provide access for those people.

We could also try to provide different versions of the sport. Due to the distractions of modern life - the fact that people have to earn a living and how difficult it is to get about compared with previously, particularly in urban areas - people are looking for something different. They are not necessarily looking for 20 or 30 weeks of rugby. They might only be looking for ten weeks of rugby. We are trying to find competition structures to offer them different ways of playing the game, for example, tag or touch rugby. We need to be more innovative in our offering. The same applies to GAA and soccer. We have had some reasonable success in that regard.

I will reiterate Mr. Delaney's point on ticket touting, in that we would be delighted if the State introduced legislation on same. It is as much a headache for us as it is for anyone else. Legislation would help to resolve some of the problem.

Senator O'Mahony raised a good point about creating the conditions for equality of opportunity between the genders and trying to get women involved in the game. As part of our women's strategy, we have rolled out a programme that tries to upskill and encourage women to get involved in the various levels of the club game. Unless they are willing to put themselves forward and feel confident about doing so, it will be difficult to know from where women administrators will come.

The Senator also referred to Abbotstown. We have been a strong supporter of its facilities from the word go. We have seen similar facilities elsewhere in the world. Almost by accident, even though I suspect that Mr. John Treacy had a design in the back of his mind, Ireland is in danger of creating a unique facility at Abbotstown that has multiple sports, including all of the high-performance ones, on-site. We can exchange information, ideas, philosophies and methods. It could create a unique environment that gives Irish sport a sporting advantage.

We are waiting for phase 2 of the national indoor arena to be built. That phase will include a high-performance rugby facility, a half-sized covered artificial pitch, a world class gym and facilities for our national coaching staff and our various national teams. The IRFU is making an additional investment to put three pitches into the facility. We have no presence in Abbotstown currently beyond our lease over some of the land, which we hold on the basis that we will eventually be able to move onto the site. Phase 2 is important for us and we will welcome its progress. While I understand that there are financial issues, I hope that they will be overcome.