Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that the committee clashes with other demands. Deputy Munster asked about participation. I refer to chapter 3 of the policy where there are 16 pages on participation alone. To summarise, we know from the most recent sports monitor that participation rates are lower in socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds and among groups like people with disabilities. We are specifically trying to target those groups with a very comprehensive approach led by numerous agencies, the national governing bodies, local sports partnerships, which already operate in that sphere, and local authorities. It is a collaborative approach across all agencies. We will also work with schools, which is very important and which I have already covered. I point to that particular chapter which provides a comprehensive view of how we plan to proceed.

On the sports capital programme, I get a little frustrated at times when I hear the programme being criticised for not focusing enough on disadvantage. Over 50% of all funding allocated in the most recent programme in 2017 went to areas of disadvantage. We are now looking at how we can adjust the scoring system to weight it even more heavily in favour of applications from areas of disadvantage. While that is very positive, we have already been weighting distribution heavily in favour of disadvantaged areas in the programme.