Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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At last week's EU Sports Council, Ministers approved conclusions on women and equality in the field of sport. The conclusions emphasise the importance of access to a safe, inclusive and equal playing field, free from any form of inequality, discrimination or violence. These conclusions emphasise the particular need to increase the share of women participation in coaching and leadership positions in sports organisations and in sports clubs.

This emphasis is most welcome and aligns closely with the priority which Minister Martin and I have attached to this area. We were particularly pleased to welcome the publication on Friday last of the latest Sport Ireland snapshot of female representation on the boards of funded National Governing Bodies of Sport and Local Sports Partnerships and other funded bodies. This shows that, for the first time, there is female representation on the board of every funded sporting organisation in the country and that the overall percentage of women on boards in the sports sector in Ireland has broken the 40% barrier, now standing at 42%.

The Council also held an important and wide-ranging policy discussion on the challenges associated with ensuring safe environments in sport. This discussion, which included participation by the acting Ukrainian Minister of Youth and Sport via a video message, enabled Ministers to exchange best practices at national level and the measures being taken to promote safe environments in sport. I took the opportunity to inform my colleagues of the work we are doing in Ireland in relation to the new template for a code of conduct for sport in Ireland, which I launched earlier this year. As the Deputy will be aware, the new template code of conduct was developed in response to several high-profile incidents and the code was developed in partnership with representatives from the Irish sports sector, including referees and officials.

The Council also received updates from France and Germany of their plans to ensure a European dimension to the significant sporting events taking place in their countries next summer, namely the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the European Football Championships.