Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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71. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the way increased participation in women’s sport at local and community level will be advanced in the coming years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8594/23]

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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109. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the steps her Department is taking to encourage the participation of females in sport. [8432/23]

Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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I wish to ask the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the way increased participation in women's sport at local and community level will be advanced in the coming years and if she will make a statement on the matter.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 71 and 109 together.

Addressing the participation of women and girls in sport and physical activity is an important element of national sports policy and is a core priority for me and the Minister. Along with Sport Ireland, we will continue to promote and encourage greater participation in sport by women and girls.

The Government has provided a current budget allocation of €89.7 million for Sport Ireland for 2023 that will enable the agency to continue to support the sport sector this year, including support for increased participation by women and girls.

The Women in Sport funding programme is an important support for sporting bodies in putting programmes in place to increase women's participation in their sports and to progress their strategic objectives for women in sport. Sport Ireland allocated €4 million under the programme for the 2021-22 with 45 national governing bodies, NGBs, receiving funding under this investment. A further €265,000 was invested in the local sports partnerships under the programme.

Sport Ireland will open a new cycle of Women in Sport funding for NGBs in the second quarter of this year. The funding guidelines will continue to encourage NGBs to develop Women in Sport programmes and initiatives focused on the key areas outlined in Sport Ireland's policy on women in sport.

Sport Ireland launched its women in sport policy in 2019 and will continue to implement the actions and objectives in the policy over the coming years. The Women in Sport policy is aligned to the national sports policy and its aims in terms of active participation are to significantly reduce the active sport participation gradient between men and women and to reduce the dropout by young girls from physical activity and sport.

Sport Ireland is continuing to promote women's and girls' participation in sport through various campaigns, such as the recent "It's My Time" campaign and HER Outdoors week. A new campaign established to support, motivate and encourage more teenage girls to be active will be launched in March. The "HER Moves" campaign will be very visible in promoting sport and physical activity to girls.

Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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I thank the Minister of State for his answer. When we encourage anyone to get involved in sport, we do so not simply for the competitive aspect of it, but we know there are lifelong benefits for the people who get involved. Of course, there are benefits beyond their sporting careers. There are the benefits to their clubs, which are central to their communities. It is critical that we invest in sport and it is every bit as critical that we invest in women in sport as much as we invest in men in sport. I have the honour of being a member of St. Michael's Rowing Club in Limerick and the even greater honour to have spent a number of years coaching a women's rowing crew who were successful on the water and in competition. One of the greatest things I ever did was to be involved with that crew. I never had to push them; they pushed me and it was a privilege.

Just before coming in here tonight, I spoke with one of the coaches to get a perspective of what the great challenge is. It was put to me that we need to focus on retention of girls in the 16- to 17-year-old age bracket.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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When it comes to promoting inclusion of women in sport, we need to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. We have an inclusion of women in sport campaign, featuring many high-profile athletes. One of the athletes who has been front and centre of that campaign is a lady called Anaïs O'Donovan from west Cork. She is one of the best freestyle kayakers in the world. She just finished in the recent world championships, putting her in the top ten and what she can do on rapids is unbelievable. It is essentially gymnastics in a boat. I would encourage anyone to check out here Instagram or YouTube footage. However, because it is not an Olympic sport, she cannot access funding. Not only can she not access funding, she cannot get advice on how she can get funding. The world championships are coming up in Georgia this year and she is still uncertain as to whether she can compete. It would be a travesty if she could not go. I ask the Minister of State to do everything possible to help her out.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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I mentioned the challenge of retention of girls in sport, particularly those aged 16 and 17. The big part of this is supporting women to get involved in coaching. There is a dearth of women in coaching in all sports in Ireland. If we can tackle that, we can go a long way to addressing the challenge of retention. I am a lifelong member of St. Michael's Rowing Club and have coached there over the years. It had no women in it when I was a youngster but now more than 20 years later, the women's crews are the strongest crews in the club. They frequently show they are match for their peers in the country and internationally. We have members like Sinéad Lynch who went to the Olympic Games. She is an inspiration to the boys and girls in the club and to all of us. It is not just rowing. When I was growing up, Sonia O'Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan were two heroes of mine.

9 o’clock

They set the standard, but we can do much more now as a Government to encourage women's participation in sport. It is critical.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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I was not insinuating or suggesting some type of gender bias.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I know.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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I appreciate that the Minister of State will look into this, and I would appreciate it if every effort was made to get a positive response for Anaïs O'Donovan. She is a talented athlete with a great future ahead of her, but she needs support.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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It is welcome that more people are not just participating in women's sport, but also supporting it, which is important. I saw that myself in Páirc Tailteann recently when there was a men's match and a women's match one after the other, with similar crowds. That would not have been the case previously.

I have a personal commitment to this through my family. I know someone who started at the highest levels of Gaelic football 30 years ago. There is a world of difference now in terms of women's participation in sport and how they are treated by organisations. The Government is acutely conscious – and the NGBs are being reminded constantly – that there is still more to do. We are here to help and encourage, but we are also here to tell the NGBs that they have to do more, particularly in terms of their boards, or else there will be significant funding cuts to them. If we get people on the boards, we hope that this greater diversity will lead to even more positive changes and better governance.