Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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259. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to outline her Department’s commitment to the delivery of the EU Work Plan for Sport 2024-2027. [24046/24]

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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On 14 May, I joined my European Union colleagues at a meeting of the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council in Brussels. At that meeting, we approved a resolution on the EU’s Work Plan for Sport, which will apply from July 2024 until December 2027.

The EU Work Plan for Sport is the main sports policy document at EU level. It sets out the key priorities and strategic objectives to be pursued by the European Commission, the member states and the sports movement for the next three years.

This particular work plan is the fifth of its type and Ireland has fully supported its development. The plan was recently approved at the European Council for Sport under the Belgian Presidency.

The plan proposes a renewed priority and focus to be given to integrity and values in sport, the socioeconomic and sustainable dimensions of sport, and to encouraging greater participation in sport and health-enhancing physical activity, across the EU.

All of these goals are well-aligned and reflected in Irish sports policy. My Department and Sport Ireland will continue to progress these policy objectives, ensuring that European and Irish sports policy work complement and support each other.

It is also pertinent to note that during the period of the work plan Ireland will assume the Presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2026.