Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 7, line 9, after "generally" to insert ", with special emphasis on female participation".

Since the Joint Committee on Arts, Sport, Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs published its report on women and sport, for which I was rapporteur, very little progress has been made with regard to the participation of women in sport, certainly not to the extent that was envisaged in that report. I acknowledge that the Government responded to the report and provided grant aid in the budgets of 2005 and 2006, which was very helpful. Furthermore, a number of the national sporting organisations have appointed female officers to promote female participation in sport. However, we still have not adopted the Brighton principles, for example, or indeed addressed a number of other issues that were clearly outlined in the committee's report.

When the report was being prepared, the committee invited the sports editors of a number of the national newspapers to a meeting. At that time, out of every 100 sporting images published, 97 were of males and only three were of females, and that was on a good day. To some extent, that has improved. I have been keeping an eye on the published images of sports people and teams in the newspapers, and the ratio of female to male has improved somewhat, although there is still a long way to go.

The amendment aims to ensure that the authority puts special emphasis on the promotion of female sport in the new campus. It is important that female sport is stressed and seen as part of the brief of the authority. Otherwise, women will not get the attention they deserve and which is necessary if we are to develop this area of opportunity. That is the purpose of my amendment. It contains the simple addition of a number of words which would place an onus on the new body to put special emphasis on the promotion of female participation in sport.

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