Mr. John Treacy:

On behalf of Sport Ireland, I thank the committee for giving us the opportunity to speak today. Sport Ireland was established in 2015 as the single statutory agency responsible for the development of sport in Ireland. We place a high premium on good governance and encourage high standards in governance from all funded bodies. We believe in empowering sporting organisations to take responsibility for their governance and meet the challenges they face. Sport Ireland assists all funded bodies to achieve excellence in their work through a number of interventions in the area of governance. This is broken down into a series of meaningful pieces of work, ensuring growth and stability moving forward.

Sport Ireland was the first statutory body to adopt the community and voluntary code as best practice in 2013. In 2016, the Minister of State, Deputy Patrick O’Donovan, identified corporate governance as a key priority for Sport Ireland funded bodies. To this end, the Minister of State addressed the national governing bodies for sport and highlighted that the adoption of the community and voluntary code would become a condition of funding. That would make it mandatory for all Sport Ireland funded bodies to start the process of adopting the code during 2017, on a comply-and-explain basis to be completed by 2021.

In anticipation of moving our funded bodies towards compliance under the code, Sport Ireland has already incorporated a number of questions in our annual grant application process. This provides us with a clear picture on where we are on our journey to comply with the code. So far, seven national organisations have fully adopted the code and 26 funded bodies are working on the journey to compliance.

Governance across the board is of paramount importance to Sport Ireland, which is why we have put in place a range of monitors and supports to ensure that funded bodies are adequately responding to the issues they face. In addition to the grant application form, we get mid-year reviews from governing bodies which detail operational plans, compliance documentation such as financial statements, anti-doping codes and codes of ethics. We also carry out an audit function each year, whereby a comprehensive programme of auditing funded bodies is undertaken. Reports are submitted directly to the Sport Ireland audit committee. The committee reviews and tracks progress. Part of those audit reports refers to implementation and plans, and we in Sport Ireland work with governing bodies to ensure we have full compliance in terms of what the audit reports state. We have dealt with many national governing bodies in that respect.

There were a number of disputes in recent times within sport and Sport Ireland. All national governing bodies are expected to include a form of dispute resolution in their constitutions, which has taken time but has been done. Through the Sport Ireland website, funded bodies have access to a dedicated section covering governance, which includes information on good governance, governance principles and the governance code, along with a number of detailed publications and toolkits, including the better board, stronger sport toolkit which was developed with funding from the European Commission. It is now available for use and Sport Ireland played a key role in the development of this resource.

Throughout 2017, we in Sport Ireland will work in partnership with the Institute of Public Administration and will host a number of flagship governance events for funded bodies, directed at board members, chairs and chief executives. We also have an organisational development and change unit that offers a series of services to governing bodies, volunteers and administrators in the area of advisory services, such as HR, governance skills, knowledge training, project management etc., which is available and has been well received by governing bodies.

Sport Ireland supports the core concept of gender representation on boards as it is consistent with our strategic and operational practice, promoting inclusion at every level of sport. Addressing gender imbalance on boards is primarily an equality measure. It would create benefits in terms of advancing the governance culture of boards by widening their representation, expanding expertise and generating a cascading effect through the other representative and governing committees within sport.

A great deal of work is directed at ensuring gender balance and much progress has been made in this regard, but we acknowledge that the introduction of mandatory quotas presents challenges. There are many high-profile female athletes, administrators and officials in Irish sport and the participation gap, we are very happy to say, has been closing. However, there remains an issue of gender balance in sports administration and more progress is required.

Should gender quotas be introduced for sports bodies, the primary issue of the process involved will need to be addressed, that is, the independence of sporting bodies. Individual M&As and constitutions may not provide for a speedy implementation of any proposal. While it would be preferable that the introduction of gender balance happens soon, it needs to be acknowledged that this process will take time. We have seen evidence of this in terms of dispute resolution, where amendments to constitutions and M&As were required.

Current funding from Sport Ireland to national governing bodies and local sports partnerships has decreased by 19% since 2007. There is a challenge to restore funding, as all Sport Ireland funded bodies, including governing bodies and local sports partnerships, need support.

As everyone knows, sport plays a very significant role in raising the level of physical activity within the population and makes a major contribution to the health of the nation. The national network of local sports partnerships is vital to the ongoing achievement of our goals in increasing participation in sport and physical activity. The continued success of Irish athletes on the world stage represents the most successful sustained period in the history of high performance sport in Ireland. This success is built on the foundation of Sport Ireland's high performance strategy and the work of the institute. If we are to realise our full potential in achieving an active population, experience sustained success at an international level and build on these foundations, there is a need for progressive funding for Sport Ireland and to deliver on the functions of the Sport Ireland Act. We believe strong Government investment in sport is merited, given the economic, social, cultural and health benefits it brings to the country.

With regard to the sports capital programme, the National Sports Campus has developed to become the epicentre for sport in Ireland. We have a national aquatic centre, the institute's high performance centre, the headquarters of Irish Sport, a horse arena, a national cross-country track which was opened this year and the headquarters of Special Olympics Ireland. I am delighted to say the Taoiseach will be opening our national indoor arena tomorrow morning. The centrepiece will obviously be the indoor athletics centre and the gymnastics centre. There will also be a national indoor training area that will cater for up to 20 sports and more. Work is under way on Cricket Ireland's training facility and additional office accommodation.

The next priority for the board of Sport Ireland is the funding and progression of phase 2 of the national indoor arena. This will see the construction of covered synthetic pitches, primarily for soccer, Gaelic games and rugby but which will be capable of accommodating all field sports, together with ancillary changing and strength and conditioning facilities. Planning permission has been granted for the development of the national velodrome and badminton centre which, following departmental sanction, has been brought to tender stage.

Sport Ireland welcomes the recent announcement of the next round of the sports capital programme. It is our contention that future funding for local and regional sports facilities should be guided by the need to best support increased participation in sport and support for elite athletes. We believe multi-sport facilities should also be prioritised, recognising that adults transition between sports throughout the course of their lives. It is the view of Sport Ireland that consideration needs to take into account the activities towards which adults are increasingly gravitating, including running, cycling, outdoor adventure pursuits and recreational walking, among others. In this regard, apart from investment in traditional sports infrastructure, the way in which the wider natural and built environments are designed needs to be addressed in order that taking part in sport and physical activity is an easy choice. From a high performance perspective, Sport Ireland is of the view that investment in high performance equipment should be catered for in future rounds of the sports capital programme. In 2014 two sports that received a capital injection were sailing and rowing and participants in both went on to win medals in Rio de Janeiro. It was a critical intervention that had a direct impact on our high performance programme.

The biggest challenge facing sport is the threat posed by doping. Earlier this month Sport Ireland hosted the leaders of 19 national anti-doping agencies at a special summit in Farmleigh, at which issues in the global fight against doping were discussed. The Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, addressed the conference. Following the meeting, the group issued a strong statement that highlighted how the world's anti-doping system could be reformed and how non-compliance should be met with the strongest possible action. It is vital that all of the recommendations proposed by the group be implemented to protect the integrity of sport and protect clean athletes. We have all read about the McLaren reports in recent times. A system of anti-doping is only as strong as the weakest country. We all need to make sure we get our systems up and running.

There are three key areas concerning strategy. We have touched on corporate governance. What we need are strong, dynamic sports organisations to drive sport in Ireland. This will obviously be a key strategy. As a new agency we are developing our own strategy and will need to resource the sector in supporting the national governing bodies.

On participation, the narrowing of existing gradients is a challenge. The investments in the national physical activity plan, measured through the Dormant Accounts Fund, are to be commended. Should these interventions be found to be successful following robust evaluation, Sport Ireland recommends that every effort be made to have them scaled up and rolled out nationwide using more mainstream Exchequer funding sources, with possible private investment.

On the high performance front, funding for 2017 has remained static. Ireland experienced unprecedented success in London, winning six medals, but this success was not replicated in 2016. We had many fine performances across the board but won only two medals. We need to ensure we increase our investment in high performance sport. We are looking to countries such as New Zealand and Denmark which are investing far more that we are in the high performance system. One gets a direct result from investment in high performance sport. We need to ensure we keep pace with the rest of the world.

Our Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games review has been completed and is with the Department. We look forward to announcing the recommendations and discussing them with the committee in due course. I thank it for its time and certainly would welcome questions members might wish to ask.