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

I fully agree. Certainly at the start of this process, some of the remarks made did not show that respect. We were very clear in our engagements that it was something that had to happen. There has to be respect and there has to be a culture of equality within sport.

Equality in sport is a key priority for the Government. Our overall vision is for women to have an equal opportunity to achieve their full potential while enjoying a lifelong involvement in sport. Both the programme for Government and the national sports policy are unequivocal in their commitment to making this a reality. The national sports policy sets out that we want to eliminate the gender participation gap entirely by 2027 and commits to increasing female participation in sport, including participants, coaches, referees and administrators, as well as increasing the funding year on year for Sport Ireland's women in sport programme. It goes from the grassroots right the way up to the high performance system.

For sporting organisations, that means not only when they are dealing with their top teams, both men and women, but also at an organisational and governance level. In our sport action plan we have set ambitious targets for the leadership and board roles within sporting organisations. They need to ensure their boards reflect the broader population. Some of them have significant work to do and will face consequences in the next 12 to 24 months if they do not get with the agenda of ensuring their boards reflect the broader population.

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