Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government provides funding for sport through Sport Ireland across its various programmes. The core grant programme for national governing bodies, the high performance programme and the carding scheme for elite athletes are all gender neutral, applying to both men and women.  The women in sport programme, which is an additional investment targeted at female participation in sport, was launched in 2005 to address the clear gender gap in sports participation.  Since then, more than €16 million has been invested in the programme. This year, Sport Ireland is investing €970,000 in women in sport.

Figures from the Irish sports monitor reports show that this investment is delivering results and the programme has proved to be a success. The 2013 report shows that participation among females has increased from 39% in 2011 to almost 43% in 2013.  This is equal to more than 750,000 women and girls participating in sport every week, the highest recorded participation rate for women since the Irish sports monitor was introduced in 2007. The result has been a significant narrowing of the gender gap in participation.

While these figures are very encouraging, I recognise that there are particular challenges around young girls staying involved in sport.  Sport Ireland, the national governing bodies and the local sports partnerships continue to develop and operate targeted programmes aimed at increasing participation by young girls.

One of my key goals for sport is to encourage more women and girls to become involved in sport and physical activity. I am hopeful that, through these targeted programmes, we will see a further narrowing of the gender gap in sport and more participation by young girls. In this regard, the Minister and I met representatives of the Women's Gaelic Players Association yesterday to discuss issues relating to their sport.

See this speech in context