Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to welcome to the meeting the following members of the Ireland women's national field hockey team: Ms Nicola Evans, Ms Deirdre Duke and Ms Nicola Daly. They are accompanied by the following representatives from Hockey Ireland: Mr. Jerome Pels, Ms Lisa Jacob, Ms Sharon Hutchinson and Ms Fiona Hanaphy. I take this opportunity to congratulate the team on its fantastic achievements. Ireland was a finalist and silver medalist in the 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup and recently qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. At a time when the committee is dealing with challenging times in Irish sport it is particularly refreshing and heartening to have a great news story to tell here today. Hockey Ireland and, in particular, the women's hockey team should be very proud of their achievements nationally and on the world stage in recent years. The recent qualification for the Tokyo Olympics in a heart-stopping penalty shoot out against Canada will go down as one of those famous "the nation holds its breath" moments for many years to come. On behalf of the joint committee, I thank the team for bringing the country so much joy, happiness and pride once again. Congratulations to you and we wish you every success, particularly at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Hopefully, you will be wearing gold medals when we will be welcoming you back here again.

We are holding hearings on the challenges facing minority sports and the participation of women in Irish sport. We would like to hear from the athletes here today about the challenges they face each day participating in their sport. We previously met with Rowing Ireland and it is our intention to meet with the governing bodies of other minority sports in the new year, particularly in the run up to the Olympic Games.

Before we begin I must inform you about privilege. By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to this committee. However, if you are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and you continue to so do, you are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of your evidence. You are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and you are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, you should not criticise or make charges against any person, persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.

Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

We read that out to everybody. It is important for some of our meetings. I invite Mr. Pels to make the opening statement.