Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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53. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht for an update on the programme of work to be undertaken by his officials to implement the Programme for Government’s commitment to ‘promoting equality of access to sporting facilities’; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5784/25]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Equality, diversity and inclusion are a key focus for me in my role as Minister of State for Sport.

The Programme for Government commits to supporting the sporting ecosystem so more people can participate, reap the benefits of sport, and fulfil their potential from grassroots right up to high performance level. This will be achieved through a range of measures including continuing to support the funding of sports capital projects and assessing the distribution of funding to maximise participation in all sports at community and national level, as well as continuing to work with sporting organisations to promote equality of access to sporting facilities and to drive increased participation in sport.

Organisations applying to the Community Sport Facilities Fund (CSFF) must be open to new members and must not have any restrictions on who may join or obtain full membership. All CSFF applicants must agree that, from the date of the grant, they will not deny anybody access to any facility. In addition, the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) requires that recipients of LSSIF funding must accommodate the needs of women and men, on a similar basis, with respect to accessing the facilities.

In 2024, Sport Ireland published its Statement of Commitment and Action to Disability Inclusion in Sport. This policy will be a key driver of disability inclusion in the coming years and sets out key actions that my Department and Sport Ireland will pursue to ensure that everyone has equal access to sport. A key action under this policy is the creation of a new Disability in Sport Lead role within Sport Ireland to drive forward the policy.

Increasing female participation in sport is a cornerstone of the National Sports Policy 2018-2027 and the recently published Sports Action Plan 2024-2027. The Irish Sports Monitor report for 2023 noted that the gender gradient in sports participation had narrowed to 2.9 percentage points, dropping below 3% for the first time. Government will continue to support the Women in Sport programme that is delivered by Sport Ireland.