We have all heard the names of athletes such as Troy Parrott and Kelly Harrington who have represented Ireland on the international stage, but I wonder if anyone here has heard of Indie Cummins or Aidan Sweeney from Kilkenny Storm, who play with the Irish Saints team under the Irish Ice Hockey Association. They are just two of many young athletes from Kilkenny, Cork, Dublin and all over Ireland who returned from Canada two weeks ago with gold and silver medals from an international ice hockey tournament. This extraordinary achievement is even more remarkable because they do not have access to an ice rink and travel to Belfast once a month to train.

It is in that context that I want to speak today about local sports funding and what it truly means for communities across Ireland. Recent analysis by The Journal highlighted a key issue in how funding is distributed in Ireland. While significant investment is allocated nationally for sports, much of it is tied to organisations and projects that already have facilities, structures and capital in place. That is the problem. What happens to communities and teams who do not start from that position? What happens to clubs such as Kilkenny Storm, which sent many of those young athletes to Canada, due to the failure to fund them? They are travelling to Canada. Their travel is self-funded. They are competing and they are winning, and yet they do not receive any funding. The fact that they can achieve this should be a source of pride for us but it should also be a wake-up call because their success is not the result of a strong system of support; it is happening in the absence of that support. All people want is access to proper facilities, no matter what sport they play. Regardless of whether they compete in ice hockey or swimming, they want to have access to a safe and warm place to do their sports. That does not exist for many different groups.

We all know that sport brings enormous benefit. It builds confidence, strengthens communities, improves physical and mental health, and creates a sense of belonging, especially for young people. It is so important when we talk about things like youth diversion, but access to those benefits is not equal in Ireland currently. If we are serious about inclusion, we have to invest in community-led infrastructure for all types of sports, even if they fall outside of the traditional model. We need facilities that are accessible, shared and designed to meet the needs of diverse and growing communities. Until we address that imbalance, we are not really supporting inclusive sport; we are simply reinforcing the inequalities we already see. I would love us to have a debate in this Chamber on how we can ensure groups like Kilkenny Storm that fall outside of traditional sporting structures have a place to thrive.