Mr. Miche?l ? Conaire:

There are two things from the Department's point of view. First, the incident should not have happened. It was very disappointing to see it. Anybody who saw the video, as the Cathaoirleach outlined, would find it very disappointing. The child was badly let down, and the Department has said that in statements, and the Ministers have said that. It is right and proper that Gymnastics Ireland issued an apology. It was unfortunate that the process took so long inasmuch as this incident happened in March last year. We understand there was a mediation process between the family and Gymnastics Ireland, but it dragged out until August this year. The length of time was definitely very disappointing.

Both the Minister and Minister of State wrote to Gymnastics Ireland about this incident to ask what measures would be put in place to ensure something like this did not happen again. They also referenced the national code of conduct, which I mentioned earlier. They are writing to all national governing bodies, NGBs, to ask them, on foot of this and similar incidents, which might not have been racist incidents but were incidents of violence and so on and which I mentioned earlier, to use the new national code of conduct template to review their existing policies, where is a policy in place, and if there is not a policy in place, to address that.

I am not here to speak for Gymnastics Ireland but it has responded and has outlined a number of steps it is taking immediately to address the issue. It has recently advertised for the role of a safe sport and integrity lead whose sole responsibility will be to handle complaints of a sensitive nature. It has resolved to establish a new diversity and inclusion subcommittee with the sole purpose of overseeing a robust implementation of its diversity inclusion and policy. It has resolved to strengthen existing codes of conduct to incorporate the new national code of conduct for sport into its own processes. It has also invited Sport Against Racism Ireland, SARI, to a meeting so it can listen to that organisation's suggestions on what further steps Gymnastics Ireland can take to deliver on its commitments to diversity and inclusion. Those actions are welcome from the Department's point of view, but it has raised a wider issue, which we have mentioned in the opening statements. We are keen, and that is why Ministers are now writing to all NGBs asking them to review their policies. We had already done work in this area with the code of conduct. It is about embedding that within the NGBs throughout the country to make sure they have steps and procedures in place to deal with these issues when they arise and to make sure they are dealt with properly and in a timely fashion.