Results 4,081-4,100 of 9,549 for speaker:Jack Chambers

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: Gabhaim mo bhuíochas leis an gcoiste as ucht a chuireadh teacht anseo inniu. I thank the committee for the invitation to appear before it to discuss this important topic and for the opportunity to outline some of the actions the Government is taking to address the challenges facing women in sport. The committee has done some important work in facilitating progress in this area. I...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I thank the Senator. Before I answer his question, I congratulate the Meath ladies. It was fantastic to see a team go from intermediate all the way to senior and winning the All-Ireland. They beat the Dublin ladies, who have had great success in recent years. We will engage in a frank and comprehensive way with the IRFU about the issues that have been raised by the players. They have...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I will not pre-empt the discussions that we will have with the IRFU, the players and everyone involved. I think the statement should have been more conciliatory. I do not think it was helpful in the context of trying to resolve the issues raised. I will not pre-empt the discussions. We will engage in a robust and frank way with the IRFU to reflect on the issues and to focus on resolving...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: We will engage with the IRFU, as I said.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: We will reflect the issues it has raised. We have involved Sport Ireland in this. It has played an important role in the oversight of Government bodies and the State's interface with all NGBs. As the Senator said, it has experience in dealing with similar issues in other sporting organisations in the past. It will have an important role here too. We are trying to engage properly and...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I thank the Deputy. The €4 million fund is extremely important. It is research-focused and targeted at trying to bridge the participation gap. That is one element of what we have sought to do regarding women in sport. When it comes to high-performance sport, we have provided substantial funding streams. From that perspective, it is easier to avail of the new sports capital and...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I fully agree that the one-club model is the future when it comes to the Gaelic games family. We saw certain incidents during the summer around certain teams not being able to use facilities or stadia. That is at the inter-county level but certainly the one-club model is the future. There should be no difference or distinction within any family. There will be much greater participation...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I share Deputy Mythen's concerns. It would have been better to have had a more conciliatory statement at the outset. We will be engaging properly on the issue relating to women's rugby. We have a list of the breakdown of allocations that we can send to the committee. I have a full breakdown that we will submit to the committee so members will have all the detail on it. The media has a...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: Regarding our new proposals in the sport action plan, we are ambitious about hitting the 40% target. It is a minimum now around progress when it comes to sporting organisations reflecting broader society but also reflecting their grassroots. With Sport Ireland's women in sport lead and the excellent work of the Federation of Irish Sport, and I know the committee will speak to Mary O'Connor...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: That may not have been in the public domain before now but I did.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I thank Deputy O’Sullivan and I appreciate the comments and his questions as well. On the whole area of participation, we have seen significant progress at grassroots level. This is something that I have seen as someone who has grown up playing and participating in sports when I go down to all of the local clubs now versus when I was playing myself at a younger age. We are seeing...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I acknowledge Deputy Fitzpatrick's sporting background and his huge involvement over many years in Louth and beyond. He made a very fair point. The facilities are certainly a challenge to female participation. I saw that from engaging with many clubs and those involved in women's sport. To try to respond to that directly, in the assessment process for the sports capital and equipment...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I acknowledge all the Senator's points. The 20x20 campaign was successful and brought so many different groups, organisations and the media together. It was a great success and we recently discussed it with the Federation of Irish Sport. The campaign was run for a particular point in time but there may be scope for doing a new campaign, as the Senator suggested. I am open to doing...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: We have such a structure in place already. There is a women in sport lead within Sport Ireland, as well as a women in sport group that deals with these issues. It is focused on four main areas, namely, leadership and governance; visibility; coaching and officiating; and active participation. Many of the sporting organisations are also appointing directors of women in sport for their own...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: As I said earlier, I take very seriously the letter we received from those players, both current and past. We are going to seek to address those issues with the IRFU and-----

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I would be interested in their perspective. They did not cast any aspersions on Sport Ireland or on the structures that are in place. They did not reference them.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I thank the Deputy for her comments. As I said, I take these matters extremely seriously. We have sent a very strong message around trying, first of all, to follow through in the first thing that was asked of us, which was to seek a meeting with the IRFU. We will have that meeting to reflect fully what was said by the players and to reflect all the issues. It is important that I have my...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: What I will say to the Deputy is that we want to see progress on the issues raised by the players and to have a constructive pathway. That is why we have involved Sport Ireland: to have overall oversight of funding and to implement the policy that we set. I am not going to pre-empt the discussions, but all I will say is we will be robust and direct in our engagements with the IRFU. We look...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I thank the Chair and appreciate her comments. I echo what she has said around the huge achievements by Irish sportswomen over recent months. She has outlined them all and I will not repeat them. We are concerned about the report from the third quarter of the year and the gap that has emerged. We will have a dormant accounts programme announced in the next two weeks. There will be a...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: Through the local sports partnerships and the Women in Sport fund, there is the Adolescent Girls Get Active research report from 8 March last. That research has been informative in how we shape future funding schemes through the Women in Sport fund and also how we fund local sports partnerships. From a positive perspective, strengthening that link between our education system and our local...