Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Addressing women's participation at all levels in sport is an important element of the national sports policy and a core priority for me, the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, and the Government as a whole. That includes women in leadership positions such as board members of national governing bodies, NGBs.

The sports action plan sets a target for all NGBs to achieve 40% gender representation on their boards by the end of this year. It is a priority to enable women to take more leadership positions in sport and the 40% target reflects this prioritisation. The most recent board composition snapshot, which was published in December by Sport Ireland, shows that the average percentage of women on boards of national governing bodies of sport has increased from 24% in 2019 to 36% in 2022. For local sports partnerships, the average percentage has increased by 2% over the past year with women accounting for 39% of board members. The snapshot also highlights that 33 sporting organisations have already achieved 40% or more female representation on their boards.

Sport Ireland will continue to provide support to NGBs towards achieving the essential target of 40% and will monitor and report on progress. Achieving the 40% target is one of Sport Ireland's grant funding priorities from this year onwards and the future funding of any NGB that fails to meet the target, by the end of this year, will be impacted. I acknowledge significant effort is being made by sporting bodies around gender diversity on their boards. Good progress has been made by many NGBs towards achieving the 40% target. However, a number of NGBs still have a way to go to meet the target and I encourage them to place a real focus on this task during the year. It is absolutely essential.

See this speech in context