Ms Sarah Keane:

To add to that, I have been on boards where there has been a conversation around term limits, for example. It seems to make sense to everybody when we look at it.

However, when it means people can be told they cannot be on the board next year they see it differently because it suddenly becomes real and affects them personally. Sport is part of our identity in this country, so it is more than a job for people. Whether one is a paid professional or a volunteer in Irish sport, it is a part of who one is and there is a passion involved in it.

To see where we struggle in Irish sport, one can take the example of a fire. Either the fire is dying out because people are just saying "Pathetic", or the fire is going out of control because people are too fervent about it and not practical in terms of what it is really about. That is the real challenge. Often it is the people who have to put themselves out who are voting it in, or not. To use a terrible cliché, it is the turkeys voting for Christmas who are involved in changing the governance. From a resourcing perspective, therefore, the training seminars currently being done by Sport Ireland are important. A lot of this is individual support to governing bodies, so how does the chief executive work with the board? How does the chairperson talk to the board about it? How can one educate, persuade and explain to the membership why it is good? If one goes tells members' governing bodies they need independent directors on the board they will sense that somebody who is not part of their sport is going to take over and make all the decisions. They may ask what they know about it as they are not from the sport. Those are the challenges one is facing. They can be overcome for sure, but it requires a real effort and also resourcing to help people to do it.

It is the same around the female side of things. In many cases what is happening in business by trying to get more women involved in decision-making and leadership positions, is happening with mentoring support. They are given individual mentoring support and when they go for a job they do so on their own merit. Whether they are male or female they go for it on merit, but they are given support to put themselves forward and prepare for it. That requires time, effort and resourcing. The idea of just putting a female athlete on the board goes against everything that is right about boards in terms of competencies and skill-sets. We go against good governance if we put people into positions without having the right skill-sets. That is our fundamental principle.

Diversity includes young and old, as well as different cultural backgrounds, although the focus on gender is highlighted. Only last week, a report on women in sport was published, and we are failing around the world on this issue. It is good that it is on the table for consideration at this meeting.