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

In addition to that, we are developing a new national physical activity plan with the Department of Health, and I chaired a recent meeting of the sports leadership group. I have got a lot of input from the Federation of Irish Sport and some of the governing bodies, so we have a new and evidence-based physical activity plan. I think that will complement the promotional campaigns Sport Ireland is running not only to try to activate that cohort of our population that is more likely to stop activity in sport but also to develop specific initiatives. The key role of the local sports partnerships and the women in sport initiative is to drive that level of participation and to try to address the participation gap. We are also clear that at a leadership level within sport there has to be increased activity in respect of our target of 40% of board members of our sporting organisations being women by the end of next year. There has been progress in the past three or four years on that such that, not only at a participation level but also at a leadership level, we see better female representation across the board.

See this speech in context