Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We like to swim in the open sea. There is no substitute for that. The thing is that we actually operate a food bank in the village where I am from. I collect the food for it, we assist 45 families and we cannot keep up. That is a new phenomenon, particularly for where I am from. Do not get me wrong, I am glad to assist in it. In terms of governance it is run by the family resource centre. I have lots to say it is a disadvantaged area but I need to see what the criteria are. We have hundreds of foreign nationals, either Ukrainian or international applicants, for whom we are not catering in clubs because we cannot. There are too many, and it is a rural area. We need to look and concentrate at how we bring them together through sport, and maybe their sports as opposed to our sports. Maybe we should have a look at what diversity there is from their national perspective. They will be here for quite a while. I am fairly sure there is no hurling in Ukraine. It might go back there. At this point, rather than looking to integrate them into our cultural sports, they might be given facilities to look at what they can do themselves, especially in densely-populated areas like south County Wexford and indeed the whole county.

That is another issue. We have a huge deficit in facilities that would accommodate the likes of taekwondo or any of the other sports that need indoor facilities. There is nowhere available in Wexford or in New Ross. There are several foreign national clubs whose members are from the foreign national community who have come here to work. For example, we have 60 children in New Ross who have nowhere to practice their taekwondo. I have gone to the council a number of times. We need to look at how we are facilitating community facilities that really are for the community. The biggest problem I have is that most facilities that we could avail of are taken up by diet clubs. I hate to say it but on seven nights of the week people can go to Weightwatchers or Slimming World but we cannot accommodate 60 children. That is a blot on all our copy books. The council should do more. There is one facility in the area but it is a derelict building. It should have been taken up years ago and been renovated to keep children off the streets and away from drugs. It is there and it would be a worthwhile investment. That would represent value for money in terms of what we are looking at today. I am very interested in the EU grant that Dr. May talked about for something like that because New Ross and Enniscorthy, the main town centres in south County Wexford, have a huge migrant population that we need to integrate. I speak on the basis of diversity.

The last thing I want to mention is the elephant in the room. Every sporting club and every sport is wondering about transgender policy. We cannot ignore it and I would like to know what Sport Ireland's input into such policy would be, in terms of either advising the Department or sporting organisations. The Ladies Gaelic Football Association, LGFA, had an issue in April where one of the Cavan clubs decided that it would not turn up. It is time we addressed this in some shape or form, rather than letting it fester and upsetting everybody. Does Dr. May have a role in that regard?