Mr. Paul McDermott:

We appreciate the Deputy's contribution. We try to turn things around quickly between the expert group, with Mr. Hogan and colleagues in the Department, and governing bodies, and we try to provide clarity as well as we can. It has worked reasonably well. Some challenges are difficult to overcome. We understand that some combat sports operate in a way that is not that straightforward to assist at present because they operate in indoor facilities with large groups. As the Deputy says, people are just paying for classes. That is tricky. Having said that, the Irish Athletic Boxing Association has excellent protocols. It introduced them as a conservative return to boxing and that has generally gone quite well.

We appreciate the point the Deputy is making. We endeavour to turn the information around quickly. It worked well during various phases of the roadmap. The expert group was obviously critical to that because sports presented protocols and were given feedback, advice, approval or direction, and that gave the governing bodies significant confidence to go back to their clubs and communities to say that was how they needed to do it. The existence of that mechanism was critical to giving the governing bodies confidence to go out to their clubs. No doubt, with how all of this has unfolded over the last weeks and months, there have been a few stumbles along the way. We did not get it 100% perfect every time but the intent and ambition is there to support it and to make sure that every sport is operating safely, and to allow the maximum number of people to participate in the sport of their choice. It has gone reasonably well and hopefully it will continue in that way. The new regime gives a platform for the next six to nine months. We have many questions and have clarity from the past 24 hours about the new levels. Hopefully that will give sports bodies confidence. Mr. Hogan is chairman of the expert group so no doubt he would like to speak to that.