Mr. John Treacy:

At the Minister's request, we have written to all of the governing bodies of sport for feedback on the gender quota issue. The submissions are being sent in this week and we hope to be in a position to provide the Minister with data by the end of next week.

We are in a global fight when it comes to doping. I think Irish citizens are very good. Dr. May has led the anti-doping initiative since the inception of the Irish Sports Council. We have to ensure our voice is heard internationally and need to ensure every country is doing what we are doing. If the system is weak in a particular country, the entire system will be let down. That is why representatives of the 19 national anti-doping agencies met in Farmleigh to keep the issue high on the agenda and ensure it will not slip off the agenda of the International Olympic Council. The Word Anti-Doping Agency, WADA, needs to be strengthened to ensure it can sanction countries. Its powers of compliance and investigation also need to be enhanced.

Our programme for high performance athletes was hugely successful in 2012 and in 2016 we had more athletes in the top 20 than ever before. However, we did not achieve the same number of medals as in 2012, as our boxing programme did not deliver the same number of medals as in 2012. As that issue has been the subject of a great deal of debate in recent times, I do not have to add to it. We are already planning for the Olympic Games to be held in 2020 and will be making announcements on funding shortly.

I ask Mr. McDermott to comment further.