Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, and echo the comments of Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan to compliment him on the way he has taken on the brief and put participation top of the agenda as part of the national sports policy that was recently announced and as part of the programme of Government to increase that. I think back to the 2020 campaign which ran for a number of years. That was a very successful model to highlight participation, not just in the game, but the attendances and to improve the amount of media exposure of it. We should look at some sort of campaign like that again to make sure we close that gender gap completely, but also further increase the media exposure and attendances.

What is the Minister of State's view on that? Could that campaign be reignited? Doing so would be very positive as it was a high-profile campaign. I fully agree with the one club model. Coming from a GAA family, I think it is definitely the way to go.

Senator Malcolm Byrne mentioned the IABA. That is something we need to look at. When issues like this arise, what is the process for dealing with them? A review of the IABA is taking place at present, which came from our committee, highlighting issues within it. Following on from the issues with ladies' rugby, should we set up some sort of a reporting mechanism through the Federation of Irish Sport in order that groups can air their concerns? A conciliation process could be set up as part of that. Any review by any sporting organisation that is being funded by the Government should be made public or should be forwarded to the Federation of Irish Sport. In the letter from the ladies' rugby players, one of the concerns they highlighted was that that report would not be made public.