Neale Richmond (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----the most important person there, to my mind, was my young niece, April, who was attending not only her first international hockey match but the largest international women's sports match in terms of attendance ever held in this country. It was a wonderful day for her to see absolute heroes on the pitch, fulfilling their aspirations to qualify for the Olympics and proving a real example.

There is a lot going on in women's sport in this country that we should be happy about. We have the women's rugby team playing Wales, our women's national soccer team are having great success and we see record-breaking numbers attending the football and camogie finals. However, so much more can be done. As the saying goes: "Can't see, can't be". It is so important for women and girls across the country that all the State broadcasters and private broadcasters increase their level of coverage of all sports, but particularly women's games at every level. If we look at the achievements of the women's hockey team at the weekend, coming after the absolute disappointment for the men's team just the previous week, that is the example we can all aspire to. We wish them well and, hopefully, they can repeat their success at the Olympics in Tokyo next year.