Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Hughes and all the witnesses for their statements. We will now invite questions from members. Each member has a nine-minute slot for questions and answers, in accordance with the speaking rota circulated. Is that agreed? Agreed. I am first on the rota and because I have to leave in about 15 minutes, I will speak first. We may have to nominate another member to take the Chair before I leave but we will deal with that when we come to it.

I again thank the witnesses for attending our meeting. They clearly all understand what an important issue inclusion in sport is. The timing of this discussion is also very important for reasons stated by some of the witnesses and in light of some recent events.

I abhor racism in all its forms. I regard it as one of the lowest forms of human behaviour. As a country, we had seemed to have come so far in terms of inclusivity and inclusion of people from different cultures, races and nationalities, but that is it. We have only come so far. Racism still festers within society and still exists within sport. We need to stamp it out.

On that note, we have to discuss the content of a recent video that gained an international profile and international views and which has become a massive talking point in recent weeks. The video is of an event that took place approximately 18 months ago. Everybody will have seen it, but it is important to describe what happened and what appears to have happened. It is a Gymnastics Ireland event. There is a medal-giving ceremony with a line-up of almost all white young children with one black child. What proceeds is that the white children are awarded with medals but the black child is seemingly ignored. Anybody with a heart who saw the look of confusion on that young black child's face would be heartbroken to see what transpired. It led to a point where one of the best gymnasts we have ever seen, Simone Biles, criticised what transpired but also reached out to the family of this young black child, which is absolutely extraordinary. The events have not just tarnished Ireland's reputation as an inclusive country but, more importantly, have had a devastating impact on the family and on the young child in the video.

With that in mind, my questions with regard to that event are about what has been done to get clarification on exactly what happened. The silence from Gymnastics Ireland has been disappointing to say the least. This group obviously has an affiliation with Sport Ireland and I assume would have received funding from Sport Ireland. It would have an affiliation with the Federation of Irish Sport. I believe it is an affiliate member. Obviously, the Department also has to issue a statement about where it stands on this issue. My question for those three bodies is what efforts have been made to clarify what happened at that event 18 months ago? What efforts have been made to get clarification from Gymnastics Ireland? If it is the case that what transpired was intentional, have there been efforts to remediate that and seek apologies? When events like this happen what do the Department or sporting bodies do to ensure organisations that do not have proper procedures in place to ensure these types of events do not happen are not rewarded with national funding? These are the types of questions people have. Will the Department, Sport Ireland and the Federation of Irish Sport tell us their views on the incident and where we go from here?