Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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528. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if specific gyms or training centres have been nominated to facilitate ongoing training for professional and elite sport under the current level 5 restrictions; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32622/20]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The public health regulations do not designate specific facilities or training centres for the purposes of undertaking the permitted and limited exempted sporting activities under Level 5 of the Government-approved “Resilience and Recovery 2020-2021: Plan for Living with COVID-19” .

Some facilities and training centres that would previously have provided services to elite, professional sports remain open to facilitate ongoing training for exempted categories of sport only. This is to ensure that professional teams can continue to compete including in international competition. It is also to facilitate our high performance athletes and teams in their preparations for the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games to be held in Tokyo next year.

It is permitted to open sports facilities for training sessions and scheduled matches for the exempted categories of sport, i.e. high performance, professional and senior inter-county Gaelic games. There is an expectation that facilities, when deciding to open for elite or Professional athletes, adhere to comprehensive protocols, which ensure extraordinary levels of control and compliance are in place. These protocols are informed by guidance from the Expert Group on Return to Sport to ensure that there is full adherence with best practice guidance from Irish health authorities, as well as international sources such as the WHO and ECDC. Facilities and training centres on the Sport Ireland Campus in Blanchardstown also remain accessible to our elite athletes.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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529. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if parents can travel outside 5 km to drop children to sports training that is outside their 5 km limit. [32659/20]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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Guidance on the Level 5 provision for non-contact training for school aged children has been issued by Government and is available on Sport Ireland's website and guidance on domestic travel restrictions is set out in the COVD-19 section of Gov.ie.

Parents can travel outside 5km to drop children to sports training that is outside their 5km limit and can also attend for child safeguarding purposes, however they will be required to comply with social distancing and all other relevant public health advice.