Mr. Kieran Mulvey:

In recent years, it has been a running issue between us, to some degree, and the Government, where decisions are made as part of the sports budget that certain organisations get designated funding. Our view in Sport Ireland is that is not really the best mechanism because either particular sports or individual organisations within sports are singled out. In that context, our view has been, and we have put this to successive Ministers, that we would prefer, particularly in the area of women in sport, that a fund is given to Sport Ireland and we make the decisions when and where it is appropriate to do so. We have continued to make that point. I agree with the Deputy that it is important that we know on the ground. The GAA is sometimes different in this regard. When we have international teams in cricket, rugby, the FAI, basketball or hockey, the women have an equal right with the male team to participate. We felt that singling out women's participation in particular sports was discriminatory, that the fund should be given to Sport Ireland and that we would receive applications from the national governing bodies, NGBs, in the context largely of the international representation, apart from our indigenous games, and decide that there was a case there. That is our view still. This year, the Government took a step in that direction by giving us €2 million for women and we have allocated that in response to the applications we got from the NGBs. That is the way forward, rather than specifically in a one or two year budget giving it to a particular programme.

When the dispute broke out on the women's FAI international team I was very conscious of dispute resolution. We appointed Peter McLoone, the former president of congress and the general secretary of IMPACT at the time, as a mediator. He mediated a settlement but from my discussions, I do not believe all commitments made arising from that mediation have been fulfilled to date. It is something we still have to address.