Dr. Una May:

The Senator is right and the Sheffield research supports many of the findings on what participation in sport and physical activity can deliver for society on the whole. The delivery of the national physical activity plan last year was a very big step in that direction. It is a joint plan between the Department of Health and our own Department. This demonstrates the degree to which its value is shown and recognised.

Some 4% to 5% of the population participate regularly in sport. The number has been increasing. We are looking at the type of participation and what activities people are doing. We are supporting activities that are seeing an increase. We are seeing drop-off rates from young people as they transition into different phases in their lives and how they participate more in individual sports. The like of swimming, running and cycling are all very popular. We have been investing in those sports.

The other big concern we have is around the social gradient. The finance we have received through the Dormant Accounts Fund has allowed us to target many programmes directly at people who are disadvantaged, be that socially, economically or physically, through disability for example. We have invested a lot of money to look at new models.

Mr. Treacy alluded to the significant monitoring and evaluation that we carry out on any programme we fund and any new initiative we introduce. We are looking to see what the outcomes of those programmes are, not just the outputs and not just how many people participate, but whether we are having the impact we want to have. Then we can evaluate whether these are programmes which can be rolled out at a bigger level. We have had some phenomenal success in some initiatives, for example in running we have the fit for life and the park run initiatives.

We have worked closely with other bodies. We work closely with and are increasing our engagement with the likes of Ireland Active on the increasing popularity, particularly for women, of personal excercise, that is, gyms and exercise classes and those kinds of activities. We are also doing a lot of work with the national governing bodies. Again with the help of the Dormant Accounts Fund, we are helping to build the capacity of national governing bodies, who would have traditionally been established to deliver sport for their members. We are trying to get them to recognise that they have the capacity and the power to deliver a greater social good for Ireland, not just for their own members and to help them to build their capacity and increase participation. This is a big ask for them in some cases because that is a shift from their focus, which is providing sport for their current members. What we are trying to do is see significant increases in membership.