Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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196. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the current and planned measures to achieve the target of 60% of the population participating in sport and physical activity; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2502/22]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Increased participation in sport is a key objective of my Department. In the pursuit of that objective, we are committed to a Sport for All approach aimed at ensuring that all persons have the opportunity to partake equally in sport and physical activity, regardless of age, social-economic status, disability, or membership of, for example, the LGBTI+ community, the Traveller community or other ethnic minorities. Increasing participation amongst these groups is a core objective of the National Sports Policy 2018-2027, and will be essential to achieve the target of 60% of the population participating in sport and physical activity.

At the end of November 2021, I launched a new Sports Action Plan covering the period up to the end of 2023, which includes a series of actions and initiatives aimed at increasing participation levels across the board including an Innovation Fund to promote innovative collaborative projects aimed at increasing sustainable participation in sport, an Inclusion, Diversity and Equality Fund, and a youth-centred stakeholder forum to guide the adoption of the strategic framework recommended in the Children’s Sport Participation and Physical Activity Study 2018. The plan's emphasis is heavily orientated towards increasing inclusion, diversity and equality in sport.

Furthermore, work is underway to embed the Sport for All approach in other funding streams provided by my Department.  For example, Dormant Accounts funds that are specifically aimed at increasing participation levels amongst disadvantaged communities and people with a disability. Forthcoming rounds of funding will place further emphasis on the Sport for All approach. The total amount of funding being allocated for such projects this year is €12 million, more than twice the amount available a number of years ago and representing a 20% increase on last year's provision. 

One of the key aims of the national sports policy is to eliminate the gender participation gap in sport support entirely by 2027. The 2019 Irish Sports Monitor, ISM, report showed that the gender gap in sports participation was 3.4%, narrower than at any point over the past ten years. Unfortunately, while the ISM report for the first quarter of 2021 showed that the gender gap was eliminated during the Covid-19 restrictions, the latest ISM figures for quarter 3 showed that the gender gap was beginning to re-emerge as Covid-19 restrictions were lifted. In quarter 3 of 2021, male sport participation had returned to pre-pandemic levels, at 48%, while female participation was 38%, 7% behind the level measured in 2019.

The emerging gradient is a cause for focus, concern and ongoing monitoring. It is now crucial that we move to ensure that the gap is narrowed and closed. To this end, many governing bodies will begin to deliver women in sport in dormant accounts funding programmes this winter which will actively target populations that have disproportionately been impacted by the pandemic, including females, economically and socially disadvantaged communities, people with a disability and ethnic minorities.

These targeted activities form part of a winter initiative for sport to kickstart participation following the reduction in restrictions.

In May 2021, Sport Ireland published its Participation Plan 2021-2024 – Increasing Participation in Changing Ireland. The Participation Plan outlines how Sport Ireland will continue to help people get active by removing barriers to participation in sport and physical activity in the coming years. The Sport Ireland Participation Plan actions will be delivered through Local Sports Partnerships, National Governing Bodies, strategic partners, clubs, communities and individuals.

The Sport Ireland Participation Plan is built on, and guided by, the National Sports Policy 2018-2027 (NSP) and the Sport Ireland Strategy 2018-2022. The Participation Plan takes into consideration Healthy Ireland – A Framework for Improved Health and Wellbeing 2013–2025 and the National Physical Activity Plan as well as global and national developments.

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Creative Ireland Programme is a culture-based programme led by my department to promote individual, community and national wellbeing.  Its core proposition is that participation in arts, cultural and heritage-based activities drives personal and collective creativity, with significant implications for individual and societal wellbeing and achievement.

Under its Creative Communities initiative, my Department and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage provide funding to each of the 31 local authorities to enable them to implement their individual Culture and Creativity Strategies 2018-2022.  These strategies were developed following extensive local public consultation, and are unique to each local authority reflecting the strategic priorities identified by the local community - including in relation to older people.  These community-led strategies (which can encompass creative engagement with older people) has delivered nearly €13.5 million investment to local authorities in four years including, for example, over €870,000 in funding to local authorities in Carlow and Kilkenny.

During 2020, the adverse impacts of the pandemic on the wellbeing of older people became particularly apparent. In response, my Department through the Creative Ireland Programme quickly developed partnerships to deliver a series of creativity-related, mental wellbeing initiatives throughout Ireland in support of older people. The Creativity in Older Age scheme has seen my department invest an additional nearly €1.6 million in 2020 and 2021, including €78,700 to local authorities in Carlow and Kilkenny.

My overall approach to creative engagement for older people is also being informed by national and international research that has consistently pointed to the wellbeing benefits of participation in arts, culture and creativity.  The results of a newly-published report by The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) at Trinity College Dublin, which was commissioned by the Creative Ireland Programme in 2020, have shown that older adults who participated in creative activities enjoy a higher quality of life and were less likely to be lonely, depressed and stressed.

In 2022, the Creative Ireland Programme will continue to work closely with partners across government investing in (i) community-led initiatives for older people through Creative Communities alongside, and (ii) more targeted creative engagement with older people from a health and wellbeing perspective.