Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity that has been given to us today to make statements for International Women's Day, although I know for many of us it has actually been quite a busy week attending many events both here in the House and in our constituencies. I myself just an hour ago was attending an event in my constituency which was hosted by Sandyford Business District, celebrating and supporting women's leadership and highlighting the importance of women's participation at every level of our society, from grassroots to boardrooms.

That is why I highlight today an issue that is very close to my heart. I also know it is close to Deputy Ní Bhroin's heart, as she mentioned it as well. It is the area of sports. One of the interesting reports I have read was done by the EUI. It was a survey of senior business and executive women leaders and it found that 94% of them had participated actively in sport through school and-or college, highlighting the importance of the transferability of skills that are gained through active participation in sport into one's professional life. That is why it is so important we continue to invest in and support women in sports for the benefit that they and our future generations of young women will gain both on and off the pitch.

This Government has done good work on this already. My colleague, Alan Dillon, and the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media published a report last year on this very topic, inclusion in sport, and made a number of excellent recommendations, which I will mention later. I found it interesting that only three of the Oireachtas Members on that committee were female. It is very difficult to capture the female perspective if they are not in the room, and this is always one of the challenges we have here in this House.

I also looked back on the report from 20 years earlier, in 2004, on women and sport. Those reports found that a lot of the barriers in 2004 were still there last year: lack of finance and facilities, lack of media coverage, lack of role models and insufficient numbers of sports leaders.

The Government has made real progress in recent years on this, and I would like to highlight some positive news to Deputies O'Reilly and Sherlock. There are now more all-girls schools offering PE as a leaving certificate subject than all-boys schools, something that would have been a very surprising fact not so long ago. Let us take just the six years from 2018 to 2024. In 2018 there were only 677 female leaving certificate PE students but now it is 7,296. That is a dramatic change and it shows the difference that can be made with the level of investment and focus on issues by the Government.

I mentioned the report from last year which made a number of pragmatic recommendations, which I believe, if implemented, can help bridge the gap between men's and women's sports and sports activity. In particular, I wish to highlight one of them, which was about supporting smaller, volunteer-led national governing sports bodies, of which we have very many, and we have very many dedicated people. I have spoken to many women involved in these organisations who are giving of their time to keep their sport alive. One I will highlight in particular is Softball Ireland, which, again, is all volunteer run and led. Its very structure and its very playing rules make it among the most all-inclusive sports out there for all ages, abilities and genders. Supporting those types of organisations can make a difference. I do not want to find ourselves here in another ten years' time, in 2035, talking about what the Government should be doing to help support women in sport. We need to act now, based off last year's report, to remove these barriers and to provide the necessary supports for women.

I appreciate that in this Dáil we have talked and will continue to talk about a lot of the big issues facing our younger generations: housing, health, education, climate and, unfortunately, the spectre of war on the horizon and at our borders. We may not think sports participation is as important, but it is a critical issue because the link between physical activity and positive childhood development is very well established. Sport Ireland's 2022 report found that only 23% of primary and only 12% of post-primary students reach the criteria for national activity. This will impact their mental, physical and professional futures, so it is something we need to focus on. If we want to secure the future of our younger generations, it is not something we can afford to neglect. I ask everybody here, every TD, Senator, parent, brother and sister, to try to encourage someone they care about to stay active in sport.

I wish everyone a happy International Women's Day.

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