Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party)
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41. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the steps she will take to ensure the National Sports Campus, Sport Ireland, and NGBs which seek State funding are prioritising climate action and reduction in their carbon emissions; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32258/22]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has a critical role to play in ensuring that the transition to a lower carbon economy fosters creativity, expands the possibilities for people visiting and living here to engage with nature, and that social and economic sustainability are at the heart of all future development in our sectors. We are doing this through a programme of specific actions under the Climate Action Plan that will ensure sustainable practises are adopted across all of our sectors. 

Under the Climate Action Plan, Sport Ireland is supporting Leave No Trace, which is an Outdoor Ethics Education Programme designed to promote and inspire responsible outdoor recreation through education, research and partnerships which will help to improve our outdoor recreation facilities and provide new opportunities for people to connect with nature. This action will be enhanced in 2023, when Sport Ireland will launch its interactive map of outdoor sports facilities.

Sport Ireland is currently undertaking a research project to map the National Sports Policy 2018-2027 to the United Nations Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, in order to capture and highlight the contribution of the National Sports Policy towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Sport Ireland expects to complete this project later in 2022. The GAA’s Green Clubs Programme has been recognised as a Sustainable Development Goals Champions Programme.

Sport Ireland is also developing a comprehensive sustainability strategy for the National Sports Campus which will enable the campus to become an exemplar for sustainability.

The Department is currently developing a new Major Sports Events Policy, which was recently the subject of a public consultation process.  The policy is still in development and it is envisaged that improving the sustainability of major sports events and exploring the use of high profile events as platforms to promote sustainability will form part of that policy development process.

Capital funding for energy efficiency measures is provided as part of the Department’s Sports Capital and Equipment Programme (SCEP) and Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). A review of the SCEP is underway and consideration is being given to expanding those sustainability supports under future rounds of the Programme.