Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 39: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his strategy to develop all-Ireland co-operation in the area of sport; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18968/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Sports Council and the Sports Council for Northern Ireland have an excellent working relationship and engage in a number of joint initiatives such as the Code of Ethics and Good Practice for Children's Sport and the biennial All Island Sports Development Conference. Coaching Ireland, which has the lead role in the development of coaching in Ireland, operates on an all island basis. Many of the National Governing Bodies of Sport are also constituted on an all-island basis. These include the governing bodies of gaelic games, rugby, boxing, cricket and golf amongst others.

While one may like to see all sporting organisations operate on an all-Ireland basis, these will - and must - be organic developments. Any political involvement in such matters, would I believe, be hugely counter-productive and would undermine any such developments.

The high level All Island Planning Group, which includes the Chairperson and Chief Executive of each Sports Council, meets on a regular basis to ensure consistency in policy and practice in sports development. There is co-operation on such issues as research, development of high performance sport and anti-doping. The group ensures that there is no duplication of effort in planning and support for governing bodies of sport and individual athletes.