Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Chairman raised the issue of the disadvantaged. I addressed that issue with regard to the sports capital programme. Again, I emphasise that we are going through the scoring criteria for the 2018 programme. As soon as we finalise these, we will publish them as we did with regard to the 2017 programme. We do not do it beforehand because there is a feeling that if we did, we would get the answers we were looking for. Ultimately, we want to get as accurate a portrayal as possible of the situation with regard to the application form. We can then adjudicate as fairly as possible by setting our scoring criteria. If we were to publish them beforehand, everyone would have 100 marks, which is not the way we should be doing it.

The Chairman spoke about inclusivity, which is very much national sports policy. We are trying to get up to 50% participation, reduce the 7:3 percentage and target groups that are not as active at sport and recreation as they should or could be. It is very much about inclusivity and funding following disability and disadvantage across the board. That is what we are trying to do. The Chairman referred to Parkrun, which is a brilliant initiative, and the Daily Mile Ireland. These are the type of programmes that are working on the ground. A ground-up approach is very much needed along with Government support facilitating that. I agree with the Chairman's comments.