Mr. John Treacy:

We have adopted the community and voluntary code and are working with the governing bodies of sport on it. Up to now we were getting them to comply with it voluntarily. We work very closely with them. There were a number of interventions at conferences during the course of the year. When we talk about monitoring, we sit down with the governing bodies which engage in a self-assessment exercise on the code, to which the progressive governing bodies will sign up and with which they will comply, but it is a slow process. As Mr. Galvin said, many of them are very small organisations and under-resourced. They are probably a long way down the road, but as of now they comply with the code on a voluntary basis. That is the reason the Minister intervened to send the message that we needed to move more quickly.

The issue of governance was highlighted last summer and a lot of the governing bodies have moved on substantially. There are now professional staff in place and good progress has been made compared to the position we were in ten years ago in terms of how we monitored governing bodies. I talked about the audit function of Sport Ireland. We have limited resources, but Deloitte Ireland carries out an internal audit and, in turn, audits the governing bodies. It might audit up to five in a year and will look at corporate governance and their financial position. It comes back to Sport Ireland with its recommendations and we, in turn, sit down with the governing body concerned and go through the recommendations made. If there are significant issues, we work through them on an ongoing basis. We work hand-in-hand with the governing bodies to assist them in overcoming the issues with which they are dealing. We probably have a great deal more leverage if Sport Ireland is providing more than 50% of the funding of a governing body. Where we are providing less than 50%, we audit the funding given to ensure it is being spent for the purposes for which it was given. When it comes to corporate governance, our powers are limited. Therefore, if we are providing more than 50% of its funding, we have a great deal more leverage.

I ask my colleague, Dr. May, to comment on the issue of gender balance. I will then comment on the issue of doping.