Ms Ciara McHugh:

The word “funding” is probably not right; the word we are looking for is “investment”. It is not a case of the local camogie or football team, where you threw money at the situation and everything was fine. It was things like making sure they had a changing room and transport and that they were fed after training. These are all things that were fed back from my own club. It was not to say the hurling team was better than the camogie team in athletic ability but the barriers were there for women and the investment to remove those meant the women’s football team could achieve. That is transferable to politics. It is not a matter of funding or throwing money at something and all is well; it is a matter of investing in childcare, hybrid working environments, support, training and education. When you invest, you remove barriers and get the development the Deputy mentioned.