John O'Mahony (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their presentation and for their articulation of the obstacles and difficulties that they face as a minority sport. I compliment Senator Ó Céidigh on inviting them to attend. This meeting is an opportunity for them to highlight their needs. I congratulate them on overcoming the obstacles to bring so much success and glory to the country. Everyone is there to greet the athletes at airport arrivals, but it is the dark days and difficult training that goes on behind the scenes that no one sees that need to be supported.

The sports capital grant for facilities comes in at some stage, but what funding does Rowing Ireland get as the governing body? When the Olympic Federation of Ireland or Sport Ireland appear before us, we hear of how targets are always set for the number of medals to be won at Olympic Games. Some of us made a suggestion a number of years ago. Britain had targeted cycling at some stage. In this case, Rowing Ireland has broken through the glass ceiling in terms of performances and medals. Surely there is a case to be made - I would support this committee making such a recommendation - to view rowing as an opportunity to win more medals. After the few weeks of each Olympic Games, we all look at the medals table. Poor old Ireland might have done well in boxing and so on, but we have an open opportunity in this case. A discrimination needs to be made. As the witnesses stated, they find it difficult to attract large sponsors. I have been a member of the GAA for years and I know the great work it does, but there is a need for us as a country to target those areas where we can be successful. Rowing Ireland has demonstrated success in recent years, which has bounced up on our radar. Now, we need to grasp the opportunity in whatever way we can to support Rowing Ireland in continuing its great work.

The Australian Prime Minister's comments about sport inspiring people were mentioned. I happened to be speaking at a summer school this year and my theme was how sport could unite and inspire in a way that politics and other activities could not, especially these days. In preparation, I switched on the "Nine O'Clock News" the night before. Apart from the sport news, everything shown was a bad news story: a mass murder in the US, a dissident attack in Northern Ireland, Brexit and so on. Suddenly, the programme went over to the sport. Rowing Ireland had many successes over the summer months, and one of the items on the segment was rowing. There were other successes in golf. As such, the only good news stories in that news programme had to do with sport. It was the only inspiration.

This presents an opportunity. Rowing Ireland mentioned that its sport did not get media coverage, although I hope that is changing, particularly in the context of 20X20 in respect of female sports. There needs to be increased media coverage of minority sports. The majority sports will always get coverage.

I compliment the witnesses. Whenever the Olympic Council of Ireland or Sport Ireland appear before us, I will push so that minority sports that have proven themselves via medals get positive discrimination in the form of extra funding.