Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

Team sport needs to maintain the priority it had. While after the age of 40 very few people are playing a team sport, the report indicates people are more likely to turn to another sport if they have already been playing a sport or a team sport. However, my concern is about the gender gap. That same research indicated that girls were already disadvantaged in terms of participation in sport before they even go to primary school. By the age of 20 only half as many girls as boys were involved in sport. That gap never closes and even grows over age. It cannot simply be a case of business as usual regarding how we direct funding. In particular there needs to be a concentration on finding sports that are attractive to girls. Clearly some of the team sports do not appeal to girls, for instance, rugby, although I believe tag rugby is the big thing now for girls. There needs to be a reconsideration of where funding is going if we are to get equity in participation.

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