Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all our guests today. I will speak about the 20x20 campaign as mentioned by both Ms O'Connor and a former Minister of State with responsibility for sport, Deputy Griffin.

It was a fantastic campaign that highlighted the low levels of participation and the low level of media attention throughout women's sport. As I said to the Minister of State earlier, we need a new campaign like that, although it would have a different title. If we are going to reach those participation levels and close the gender gap, we need a campaign with the media attention that campaign got fully behind it. It brought in a lot of high-profile international rugby players and players from all sports and we have seen the effect that had, particularly in the media. According to the FIS's opening statement, in 2019 only 4.2% of articles referred to female sports and female athletes, which is astounding. There has been an increase in representation, with games being covered on national radio and TV. This is something that should be done and the Minister of State reacted positively to that suggestion. I ask Sport Ireland and FIS to take that on board. They can give it a different name but we should have a similar campaign over the next few years to make sure we reach that gender gap level by 2027 and increase not just participation in sport but attendance, media coverage and participation at an administrative level within the organisations.

I am a former member of the central council of the GAA. The one club model is something I have always fully supported. We should bring the LGFA, the Camogie Association and the GAA under one banner and promote all sports equally. I look forward to seeing that happen and I believe it will happen fully in the not-too-distant future.

On the letter to the IRFU, Dr. May made a comment about when the report that the IRFU is conducting at present is published. Yet, according to documentation and part of the letter, it is not going to be published. Philip Browne said that the full review would not be made public and that the union would continue its long-standing policy of releasing only the key findings to the media. Any review conducted by any organisation that is State-funded should be made public in order that everyone is aware of what the findings are and we can identify the issues and rectify them. In this case there are a lot of issues within the rugby fraternity and they need to be rooted out and dealt with.