Dr. Una May:

The 20x20 campaign was a fantastic catalyst for the work that has been going on as part of Sport Ireland's initiative called women in sport. We have seen a significant increase in funding for the programme by the Department. It is important that we do not focus only on campaigns although we have run some and are currently in the process of the HER Moves campaign, which is a teenage girls physical activity campaign. We run the annual campaign called HER Outdoors. We conduct research to establish what the barriers are and the areas that are of interest to individuals and then run programmes along those lines. Last winter, we conducted a campaign called It's My Time, which specifically targeted older women to be active in sports. Their key barrier was a lack of time so we ran a campaign in that area.

Identifying campaigns is a really important means of generating awareness and creating that energy behind women in sport programmes. It is very important for us that we also then provide programmes and initiatives to back that up. The HER Moves campaign, in particular, has multiple programmes and initiatives rolled out across the entire country and across all the NGBs to support the campaign itself.

For visibility, we have carried out work around punditry training for women in sport to ensure that there are more women making inroads and being present as commentators, and visible in all sorts of areas. The programme was very heavily subscribed and we will run it again. The programme was extremely popular and has made a difference.

We are tackling the problem from many different angles. Although the 20x20 campaign was hugely successful and we are extremely grateful that the campaign created an awareness of women in sport, we are now trying to follow that on with implementation and actions that really will implement the outcomes of the energy that the campaign created.