Mr. Donal Conway:

May I respond to Senator Daly? I have read out various figures today. Equality is the issue and it is not the issue in this sense. In my address, I spoke about the SPAR primary school fives. Of all of our programmes, it has the highest female participation, as 42% or 43% of the 37,000 participants are female. Senator Daly rightly stressed the importance of equality. Our challenge, which is the challenge of every sport, is that at the ages of 13, 14, 17 and 18, in excess of 40% of participants will still be female. It is fantastic to see it in the primary school fives, which involves fourth, fifth and sixth classes in primary schools throughout the country getting their day out in the Aviva Stadium. It is a brilliant day when they come up. It is not graded. Schools play based on enrolment figures so it is not the case that a big school will get there ahead of a small school. The competitions are based on enrolment. I have mentioned the 43% female participation and the challenge for us is to try to keep this percentage the whole way up, including at board level and having female coaches, referees and administrators.