Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely agree. I admire players like Aisling Sheridan for their dedication to their county, and we have had many across the codes who have been on both sides of the world.

I agree we need a level playing field when it comes to this issue. That is why we are trying to pursue a common framework in the context of the review by Sport Ireland. We want to see the issue around governance and leadership at board level addressed by many of the national governing bodies, NGBs. Some NGBs have below 10% on their boards, which is not sustainable and is not something we, as a Government, can support if they continue with that position. That has to be part of the conversation as well.

In terms of the broader Gaelic games associations, we need better co-operation, co-ordination and collaboration across fixtures and across how games are organised. I have been involved with my local Gaelic games club from a young age. In my club, it is one club across camogie, ladies football, men’s football and handball. Everyone operates collectively, with equality at the heart of it, and promoting all of the games equally. We would not have seen happen what manifested nationally in recent days in many of our local clubs.

That is why we need to see greater co-operation across the associations and it is why we have already discussed this. When I met Sport Ireland, I raised this as a key issue in terms of the funding approach. The current position certainly sends the wrong signal to women, girls and people who want to see and play our national games. There should be a common funding approach. That is something we are committed to as part of the review and, hopefully, we will work with Deputy Smyth’s Oireachtas committee to achieve that collective aim. We want to see the current gap dealt with properly. That is a core objective of our national sports policy and something I am committed to pursuing in a proper way. We have engaged on this with the women in sport committee of Sport Ireland, which has looked at this in a really forensic way. We support it and the 20x20 campaign, which is a key objective for Government.

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