Ms Sarah Carney:

I work with the UNESCO chair in inclusive sport at Munster Technological University, MTU, and I represent the TRUST Ireland partnership. We are a group promoting sports as it should be; fun, fair, clean, safe and accessible to all. Funded by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, TRUST Ireland aims to socialise sport, human rights and the sustainable development goals in Ireland. We are a partnership of the UNESCO chair MTU, our colleagues in SARI, Federation of Irish Sport, GAA, CSO and Sport Ireland. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission is an advisory partner.

We aim to create a society where everyone is included and can participate in physical education, sport, fitness and recreation, regardless of who they are. We know that these activities have the potential to trigger social change while empowering people with flourishing health and wellbeing. In this project we speak about human rights in and through sport. Everyone has the right to participate in sport. While sport can be a source of good, there is also the potential for human rights abuses in sport and rights need to be protected in sport.

Finally, sport also has the potential to contribute to other human rights, such as health, employment, non-discrimination and education. These are human rights through sport.

We have a broad understanding of sport that includes physical play, recreation, and organised, casual, competitive, traditional sports and games.We understand inclusion as going beyond getting participants onto the playing ground or into the gym to take part in an activity. It is also a process that helps to overcome barriers limiting the presence, participation and achievement of all in sport. This means inclusion in social activities around sport, including coaching and training, leadership, co-design of educational materials, employment, and access to stadia and facilities. This fuller understanding of inclusion in sport has potential knock-on effects for inclusion across society, with greater engagement and visibility of marginalised groups.

To create conditions necessary to see this, we held workshops to discuss current access with groups who have traditionally been underrepresented in Irish sport, including migrants, refugees and asylum seekers; Travellers; members of the LGBTI+ community; women and girls; people with disabilities; and a workshop specifically with people with intellectual disabilities. Further workshops were held with local sports partnerships and national governing bodies to discuss their work on human rights and equality, diversity and inclusion, EDI, in sport, and for them to react to the issues raised by rights holders. A summary of findings was presented to the sports leadership group in June 2022. A final report is now being finalised for public launch. A summary of rights-holder views is provided in the briefing document to the committee.

From this research, the TRUST Ireland partnership has developed the following recommendations: align the definition of sport embraced in the national sport strategy and Irish Sports Council Act to policy-oriented priorities reflecting the expansive definition of sport; expand the understanding of what inclusion in sport means; prioritise "furthest behind first" in all sports-related planning and all other policy areas that use sport and ensure rights-based approaches in line with public sector duty; establish participatory approaches to cross-sector sports policy and planning at all levels and functions of sport and diversify the stakeholders involved in these policy processes; prioritise capacity building and workforce development to deliver a skilled workforce for equality and social outcome-based approaches to sports delivery; increase engagement with volunteers on inclusion and participation in sport; expand cross-sectoral funding access and allocations to support the elimination of barriers for marginalised and underserved groups; invest in a public awareness and education campaign to increase public awareness of the value and role of sport in society; and invest in robust, outcome-oriented disaggregated data to inform evidence-based policymaking, advocacy and impact assessment across multiple policies in Ireland that focus on or produce sport.

I look forward to hearing members' thoughts on these recommendations and our research. Thank you.