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

The Deputy raised the issue of Anaïs O'Donovan previously and I know that Sport Ireland is aware of her situation. I certainly will get back in contact with the agency on that case. It takes responsibility for managing that funding. Just to be clear, I do not think there is any discrimination there in terms of gender but it is related to the particular sport in which I understand she is world class. We wish her every success in that and we will certainly be back in touch with Sport Ireland about that.

The research on this is clear. The gender gap went completely during the Covid pandemic but it is back up. There is now a gender gap of 5% in women's participation in sport, which is a cause for concern for governing bodies. It is also a cause for concern for Government. At the top level of sports organisations, we are committed to ensuring that they have minimum of 40% of each gender on their boards. Since we last discussed this in the Dáil, the IRFU has issued a clear statement that it will ensure it has 40% of women on its board, which is welcome. I spoke to some women rugby players who said it is important to make sure that happens and I am confident it will. Just after Christmas, the FAI also made positive statements but again this needs to happen. I look forward to the GAA making such a statement about its organisation. With the GAA the issue would be resolved, I expect, by the creation of a new organisation with the LGFA and camogie. The only difficulty I have is that it seems to be a long process. That is understandable because there is a lot to do in creating this new organisation but it is demanded by the grassroots players of all those sports and is an important priority for the Government.

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