Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Addressing women’s participation at all levels in sport is an important element of the National Sports Policy 2018-2027 and Minister Martin and I are committed to ensuring that we continue to provide increased opportunities for female participation at all levels.

Funding allocated for this year shows an increase of €8 million or 5% in the sport budget. This includes an increase of €2 million for the Women in Sport programme this year. The Women in Sport funding programme is in place since 2005 and over €30 million has been invested since then through the National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs) and the Local Sports Partnerships.

This is a very important funding programme for sporting bodies and it will continue to support those bodies in putting programmes in place to increase women’s participation in their sports and to progress their strategic objectives for women in sport across all areas including active participation, coaching, officiating and leadership.

The increased budget will also facilitate Sport Ireland to continue to lead out on programmes and initiatives that support the implementation of the Sport Ireland Policy on Women in Sport.

The funding is being administered by Sport Ireland, which sets out the terms and conditions of funding. Sport Ireland has opened the 2024 scheme for applications from sporting bodies.

Sport Ireland’s funding guidelines for the Women in Sport programme continue to encourage organisations to develop Women in Sport programmes and initiatives focused on the key areas outlined in Sport Ireland's policy on women in sport, namely, Coaching and Officiating, Active Participation, Leadership and Governance and Visibility.

Investment in the Programme to date has enhanced all aspects of female involvement across these target areas.

We set a target for all NGBs to achieve 40% gender representation on their boards by the end of 2023. It is a priority to enable women to take more leadership positions in sport and the 40% target reflects this prioritisation. The average percentage of women on boards of NGBs has increased from 24%, in 2019, to 43%. In relation to the overall percentage of women on boards in the Irish sports sector, this now stands at 44%.

Those NGBs who have not yet obtained the target of 40% females on their boards will only be permitted to draw down 50% of their funding allocation from Sport Ireland this year, until such time as they reach the 40% target. Sport Ireland will continue to provide support to NGBs towards achieving the target of 40% and will continue to monitor and report on progress.