Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome. As Senator Cassells has said, this report came on the back of a strike that took place a number of years ago. Our children would not get to participate in sport if such a strike were to continue. The detail and evidence the committee was given by the various sporting organisations were stark.

This issue affects more than just the three main pillar sports. If we delve into the matter, we see that in basketball 47 reports were made over the three-year period between 2017 and 2019, with 115 reports made in camogie and 58 made in hockey in the same period. What was startling was the finding that prior to December 2021, 74% of soccer and underage soccer referees reported being verbally abused. I believe those figures are slightly skewed because I do not believe the vast majority of referees report abuse within their own organisation. That is an issue that needs to be tackled and I know that from experience. Years ago, I served as an official in the GAA. I also played GAA and I actually refereed one match. Unfortunately, I got a certain amount of verbal abuse and decided that refereeing was not for me. I served as an umpire for about ten years at national league level and I am still involved as an official in my local club. The reality is that a vast majority of the verbal abuse at games is not reported by the referees. That needs to change.

The organisations themselves then need to implement strict codes of conduct within their clubs and county boards and up through their structures. They must impose penalties on those who are guilty of this behaviour. If all clubs in the country in the various sports looked at how they deal with it, they would probably find they are not tackling it in as strongly as they should.

There are a number of strong recommendations in the report. The proposal to have a sports ombudsman working with the Federation of Irish Sport is a very strong one and deserves serious consideration. As Senator Cassells said, Ms Mary O'Connor proposed an idea with regard to the sports capital grants programme. I would be fully in favour of that. Any organisation that does not implement a strong code of conduct should be excluded from applying to the programme and any club whose members are found guilty of an offence of this nature should be barred from applying for State funding. We need to take a strong line on that.

We had a good discussion on online abuse when the Seanad discussed the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill.One of the recommendations I asked to be put into that Bill was that Coimisiún na Meán would engage with the various sporting organisations, and that was taken on board. I think the Minister of State is meeting this week with the sporting organisations as part of us as a Government engaging, but Coimisiún na Meán needs to engage with every sporting organisation and make sure that the recommendations of that Bill are implemented in the code of conduct of every single sporting organisation in the country. If sporting organisations do not adhere to that, we should ensure that the organisations within that code will not be eligible to apply for sports capital funding.

I will deviate slightly. Senator Cassells mentioned at the beginning that sport has been to the fore in recent days, in particular with regard to GAAGO and the promotion of sport, which is important. I welcome the proposal from Senator Malcolm Byrne that we have a discussion on the broadcasting and promoting of sport because it is only by promoting and broadcasting the various sports that we will keep children involved and get more children into the minority sports as well, which is important. This is something I feel very strongly about. Many politicians from various parties, and various party leaders, including mine, and including the Tánaiste, have commented on this. The reality is that the sport of the GAA is not about one particular code involving two counties. GAA is Gaelic football, hurling, rounders, handball and Scór. Thirty-two counties play both codes in particular. All those sports are played throughout the country. We have Warwickshire, Lancashire, London and New York involved. As I said, it has been highlighted in recent days, but we have to take into consideration all counties involved, and when we are identifying the free-to-air we have to identify the provincial finals as a priority. If the Galway-versus-Sligo Connacht final was taken off free-to-air in lieu of a round-robin Munster hurling championship last week, that is not fair on the two counties of Galway and Sligo, which work just as hard in the promotion of Gaelic games within their counties.

I look forward to the discussion. Senator Malcolm Byrne proposed that we have a discussion about broadcasting of all sports and look at all media because the reality is that we need more participation in sports throughout the country.

If I may just touch on the sports capital programme, the Minister of State said that this may be the last time the OSCAR system is used. I have applied for such funding for my club on a number of occasions. With regard to the provision of sporting facilities throughout the country, will we be identifying where there is a lack of facilities in certain areas and in certain sports and prioritising them ahead of other applications? I am involved in my county. We are one of the very few that has no outdoor athletics track. I know the Department was looking at an app whereby it would have all this on board to know where these facilities are not in place-----