Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I watched a great camogie match last Sunday, the national league final between Kilkenny and Galway. The hurling was absolutely brilliant to watch. It was also great to see the uachtarán of the Camogie Association, Hilda Breslin, a proud Athy woman, present the cup to the victorious Kilkenny captain, Meighan Farrell. Coupled with the great performance of Leona Maguire on the US LPGA tour, it reinforced for me the very positive and welcome participation of women and girls in sport over the past few years.

The recent 20x20 campaign entitled If she can't see it, she can't be it, helped a great deal. It was a campaign about creating a cultural shift in our perception of girls and women in sport. This campaign ran from 2018 to 2020 and had three aims: 20% more media coverage of women in sport; 20% more female participation at player, coach, referee and administrative level; and 20% more attendance at women's games and events. The 20x20 concept originated from and was developed by Sarah Colgan and Heather Thornton and driven by their agency, Along Came A Spider. Together with the Federation of Irish Sport, all of Ireland's leading sporting organisations came together to pledge their active participation and support.

There can be little doubt about the findings after the campaign, with very encouraging results: 80% of the population is more aware of women's sports than before the launch in 2018; 61% are more likely to support women's sport more than they did in 2018; 75% of men said the 20x20 campaign change their mindset positively towards women in sport; and 42% of women said they are participating in more sport and physical activity due to the awareness of the 20x20 campaign. We now face challenges to this forward momentum. A recent UN paper highlighted that the progress and attention gained in women's sport may be undone due to Covid-19. It stated.

The pandemic of COVID-19 now threatens to erase this momentum as the sport world has been forced to cancel or postpone events, schools have closed, and people are staying home. Existing gaps between women and men, girls and boys in both elite and grassroots sport may widen if governments, sport organizations, sponsors, civil society, athletes, media and UN agencies do not put women and girls at the centre and address their specific needs in response and recovery plans.

It is critical we do not allow the progress that has been made in female participation in sport to be lost. We need a new plan that engages with females of all ages and builds on the success of the previous campaigns. I hope we can discuss this with the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and would appreciate if the Leader could arrange such a debate in the House.

In the few minutes remaining to me, I want to support Senator Craughwell on the urgent need for debate on our Defence Forces. The Leader had arranged that debate but it had to be cancelled. Given the recent report from RACO it is now time that we discussed in the House the urgent need for assistance for our Defence Forces.