Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

The straight answer is "yes." In the natural course of Estimate processes, the local sports partnerships will be receiving additional funding.

I thank the Deputy for his welcome of the agreement with the Gaelic footballers. I express my thanks to the Gaelic Players Association, the GAA, the Irish Sports Council and my own officials for putting in much hard work to reach agreement, which we announced just this morning. I thank the people involved for moving to a position where we could reach agreement, which was welcome.

The local sports partnerships actually form part of that agreement. One factor of the agreement I was particularly pleased with this morning was the indication that the players would work with the local sports partnerships in return for some support. They would be able to give back some kind of leadership to society through the sports partnerships. I thank them for this action in particular.

I am also commencing a review of the role of the women in sport in particular. There is much work to be done in that area and we will commence the work fairly shortly.

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