Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses not just for their presentation but their work in this area over a number of years. We are seeing the fruits of that labour and we must now consider how to develop this further. I was struck after reading some stuff by Ms Sarah Keane, the president of the Olympic Federation of Ireland, who spoke about the question of school uniforms involving teenage girls to a greater extent and the importance of doing that within the school environment.

We are currently engaging on the whole area of leaving certificate reform and looking at the school curriculum at second level. If the witnesses were the Minister for Education and considered the support that could be given within an educational context to teenage girls' participation, what would they do?

My next question brings a slight conflict. I noticed that Ms Lynne Cantwell was one of the signatories to the letter to the Irish Rugby Football Union on behalf of women's rugby. She also chairs the women in sport committee as a member of the board with Sport Ireland. The question is that a member of the board of Sport Ireland is raising specific concerns around what is happening within a member organisation. Will the witnesses comment on that?

My main issue is the question of the educational system. Ms O'Connor mentioned some statistics at the start indicating only approximately 7% of teenage girls are really actively taking part in sport. What can we do in education to change that?