Mr. David McGill:

Badminton Ireland is the national governing body for badminton for the 32 counties of Ireland. We work with the four branches, Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster, and external stakeholders, including Sport Ireland. Badminton has been an Olympic sport since 1992, in which time we have produced three Olympians.

Badminton Ireland has more than 12,500 registered members playing the sport across 350 clubs. Our sport is almost entirely gender balanced, with 49% of our members being female. We cater for all ages, with 5,000 of our members aged 24 years and over and a further 5,800 under 18. Badminton offers a family friendly environment for players of all ages, from as young as eight years to over 80. We run a range of programmes and events throughout the season, from schools' events to master's tournaments. We invest almost 60% of our annual income in development activities and a further 20% in events which cater for players of all levels. However, like all national governing bodies, the increased administration required to ensure compliance with the governance code, the general data protection regulation and the Children First legislation has put a strain on our financial model and we expect this pressure to increase in the coming months and years.

The sports capital expenditure programme has been hugely beneficial for Badminton Ireland. Through the sports capital expenditure programme in 2014, we were able to implement a schools initiative called Shuttle-Time. The programme provides training, resources and equipment for the sport of badminton for schools, all free of charge. It has been hugely successful since its launch, reaching more than 44,000 children and 270 schools in its first year. That number continues to grow and has reached more than 59,000 pupils across primary and post-primary schools. We recently launched a new initiative in conjunction with local sport partnerships to bring the Shuttle-Time programme to DEIS schools in a number of areas. With growing concern about obesity levels in Ireland, particularly among children, we believe extending the reach of badminton further through the school system could help to improve activity levels for all.