Ms Mary O'Connor:

The Senator missed my submission earlier. One of the things the federation was looking for was a VAT exemption to extend to sports equipment. I refer in particular to people with disabilities and modifying equipment for people with disabilities to use, such as hand cycles, sports wheelchairs and so on. I think I speak for all the national governing bodies, NGBs, here that a lot of work has gone on, through Sport Ireland, in coaching and also the Cara centre in Tralee around modifying individual sports to include people with physical and intellectual disabilities. I refer to GymABLE and there are loads of others. All of the sports are engaging in that. To be fair to all the NGBs in Ireland at the moment, they are all looking at making their sports much more holistic and moving away from the competitive elitist model to make sure there is a recreational and participatory side to their sports. That is to be commended.