Dr. Una May:

Before I address the transgender issue, I will speak about our new communities. The Deputy is very much on the ball when it comes to martial arts. They are a key area for us because they do reach a lot of audiences and targets. These are the kinds of initiatives that we hope would be supported through the local sports plans which would identify those weaknesses and gaps. When it comes to capital funding, no one club is going to own the facility. Rather, clubs are going to rent the facility so we would be very supportive of any developments around that. We identify martial arts as being an area where there is room for growth. In respect of new communities, the Deputy mentioned Ukrainians in particular and we have worked very closely with the Volleyball Association of Ireland, which now has more non-Irish than Irish members because it is a very popular sport. We are working closely with the association to ensure that opportunities to participate are made available to people, where possible. As the Deputy said, some of the clubs are full, which makes it difficult, but we are providing guidance and support where we can.

The issue of transgender participation in sport is a very complex area. We have not taken a stance on it but there is a reason for that. It is a very rapidly evolving area and what we are seeing is international federations such as the International Olympic Committee, IOC, adopting a position on it and then a year or two later having to revise that position. We do not want to jump in and make recommendations. We are in the process of developing guidance. That has been a difficult process because initially we could not find anyone who was willing to tender for the service. Now have a consultant who is currently working on the development of guidance around transgender inclusion in sport. We are in the latter stages of the consultation now. We have consulted with communities, the sector and the public. We have also specifically consulted with individual advocacy groups to get their input on how we develop the guidance. Our intention is not to declare a policy around who can or cannot participate in sport but to provide guidance to the sector to help it to identify the measures or the course it needs to take, in consultation with its own community. Every sport is different. In some cases, there are legitimate health and safety concerns while in other sports, men and women participate on an equal footing and there is no issue whatsoever. We will not take a position but we will provide guidance. We are working very intensively on that and we expect the guidance to be produced in the fourth quarter of this year.