I welcome the Minister of State to the House. Tá ceathair nóiméad le chéile ag Seanadóiri Ní Chuilinn agus Harmon.

Gabhaimid buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as a bheith anseo don díospóireacht seo. It is rare that you will see Senators from both sides of the House take a take a joint Commencement matter, but an rud is annamh is iontach. Senator Harmon and I believe that inclusion in sport is not party political, and we tabled this matter together as a reflection of real inclusion.

We have reached a point where women's sport is no longer what could be described as a minority sport. Increased and sustained ring-fenced funding from the Department is to be acknowledged. The amount of €4 million provided in 2025 was double what was made available in 2022, so the trajectory is positive. It is important that we do not lose sight of the intended supports, and I encourage all national governing bodies to produce spend against reports in order that Sport Ireland can ensure that the ring-fenced funding to which I refer is being spent as intended.

I recently met representatives of Vision Sports Ireland, VSI. One of the greatest barriers they face in the context of sport and physical activity is the vetting procedure and how long it takes. Unlike other sports where children, for example, need a coach to child ratio of 1:15, a vision-impaired athlete will often require one-to-one coaching. VSI cannot accept walk-ins or casual volunteers, even if they are vetted by another sporting organisation, and this is hampering their delivery of sports. As a result, a streamlined and centralised vetting service may be of benefit.

I should point out that Ireland won six medals at the Paris Paralympic Summer Games in 2024. All six were won by vision-impaired Paralympians. It is important that funding follows this success and that sport is presented as a realistic opportunity for children with vision impairment. We are approaching Mayfest, which is VSI's annual come and try event where people who are blind or vision impaired have the opportunity to try sports like football, golf or tennis, so I encourage people to engage with that event. It will be held on 16 May in Dublin.

The next round of sport capital funding is approaching fast. I ask the Minister of State to consider whether projects that favour the inclusion of sport for all groups can be prioritised. Many sports clubs have special group sessions for autistic children, for example, but because of the duty of care around children who may be a flight risk, clubs need to have a safe, fenced off space to let the children hone their skills and have some fun. It would be encouraging to see community sports facilities fund applications being given priority, particularly as the aim behind that fund is to cater for those groups.

The word "visibility" may be misplaced here, but it is so important that those in print and broadcast media ensure that para-athletes are celebrated and acknowledged as much as our Olympians. There is an argument to be made - it was made by the relevant committee in its report - that the Paralympics. which are held every four years, should not be the only time we see disability sport on television or social media. Young people need to know what is possible. As a result, we need to see our Paralympic stars celebrated.

That argument could also be made for many marginalised groups. Seeing is believing. If we do not actively promote sport in our LGBTQ+ community, our Travelling community and other communities, we will lose sight of them. My colleague Senator Harmon will focus on that now.

I welcome the Aire Stáit. I firmly believe that sport does and can unite us all. It is so important that we promote inclusion in sport at all levels and for all types of sports, be it for women, disabled people, members of the Traveller community, those of different ethnicities and members of the LGBTQ+ community, of which I am one.

It was great to join Na Laochra Aeracha in Cork in my late 30s recently and to go back to playing GAA after 20 years. It is an important club. Unfortunately, many clubs face barriers in terms of funding, regulations and the boundaries that the GAA might set for where people need to be living. We need to look at these issues and have a consistent across the board.

I am also a member of Frontrunners in Cork, which is an international group for LGBT runners. There is also one in Dublin. These groups provide such an important space, not just for sport, health and well-being but also in terms of mental health, being able to make friends and build a community outside of other spaces, and certainly outside places that involve alcohol. It is really important that we encourage inclusion across the board. It could be absolutely transformative for our country and could really foster confidence in people who may have given up sport at a younger age and were able to come back to it again. Age should not be a barrier when we talk about inclusion in sport.

I really welcome this debate. It is good to have a debate in which the Government and the Opposition are in agreement, because I really feel this is something that should unite everybody.

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Seanadóirí Harmon agus Ní Chuilinn. I thank them for coming together on a cross-party and cross-floor basis today as well. I do not think it is any accident that happened on the topic of sport because, as Senator Harmon said, sport is something that brings people together from all walks of life and, indeed, from all sides of politics as well. I also want to thank both Senators for taking the opportunity today to highlight the previous Oireachtas joint committee's report on inclusion in sport. It is important that we look back on the progress on that report, particularly as we commence preparations now towards the next ten-year national sports strategy, which will commence from 2028 onwards and which we will complete over the course of the end of this year and next year.

Looking at some of the recommendations from that report, I am pleased to report that there has been good progress on a number of those, particularly in relation to embedding sport legacy benefits in the approach of major sports events, accessibility requirements in sports capital funding programmes and building a network of inclusion-focused personnel. The national sports policy sets out a vision for sport in Ireland running up to 2027. The policy is grounded in its sport for all ethos that emphasises inclusion within sport and increasing participation among under-represented cohorts. Substantial progress has been made since the policy's inception and Irish sport is undoubtedly a more diverse and inclusive place as a result. This policy contains an ambitious plan to eradicate the gender participation gap over the lifetime of the policy and significant strides have been made in this regard.

The 2024 Oireachtas joint committee report highlights the importance of evidence-based policymaking and research in this area. This certainly underpins the approach taken by Sport Ireland across a range of headings. The Irish sports monitor report for 2024 found that active sport participation levels among women is at 47% now, which is an increase of one percentage point since 2023 and, really importantly, that the gap between men and women is now down to a historically low level of 3%. It is not only on the field of play where there is evidence of real progress in relation to the visibility of women in sport. The overall percentage of women on the boards of national governing bodies of sport is currently 47%, representing an increase of 18% since 2020. In the case of local sports partnerships, 52% of board members are women.

Alongside active participation and representation in leadership, visibility is a key pillar of Sport Ireland's women in sport policy. Despite the substantial progress made in recent years, there remains significant work to do with regard to the visibility of women's sport in the media, which is something Senator Ní Chuilinn touched on in her contribution today. The 2024 report correctly highlighted the need to remove visibility barriers to inclusion in sport. In this context, I welcome Sport Ireland’s recent publication of the first ever study of gender balance in sports media coverage. The research demonstrated that women remain significantly under-represented in Irish sports media. The Future of Media Commission has called for the development of a diversity and inclusion strategy for sports reporting and broadcasting. In response, Coimisiún na Meán is currently in the process of developing a sports strategy in consultation with Sport Ireland.

Since the publication of the committee's report, Sport Ireland launched a statement on commitment and action to disability inclusion in sport in November 2024. Increased funding was provided to sport in budget 2025, which enabled Sport Ireland to establish a dedicated disability in sport funding stream and, really importantly, appoint a disability in sport lead. Despite recent progress, there remains an enduring participation gap between persons with either a long-term illness or a disability and those without such challenges. Both my Department and Sport Ireland are committed to reducing this participation gap. In 2025, we saw €2 million awarded to the national governing bodies and local sports partnerships as part of the dormant accounts funding via the equality, diversity and inclusion fund. The aim of this fund is to support our national governing bodies and sports partnerships in delivering projects that address barriers to participation for individuals from diverse communities regardless of their socio-economic background, gender, disability, sexual orientation or ethnicity. This is a critical initiative that directly responds to a key theme of the 2024 report, and I know it will be welcomed by colleagues.

I thank the Minister of State for that update. This is the beginning of a debate we could have at a broader level across the House. There seem to be a lot of Senators who would like to contribute to a debate on inclusion in sport. That would be welcome. We might approach the Cathaoirleach about that.

The Minister of State mentioned the next national sports strategy, which will run from 2028 onwards. It will be really important to have some of those points he highlighted included in the next policy.

We should examine other issues that have come up recently in relation to safeguarding, particularly when we are looking at disability in sport.

I thank the Aire Stáit for that detailed response. It is really great to hear the statistics in relation to the gap closing between women's and men's participation. We absolutely need to continue that and to see more visibility and diversity in terms of reporting on sport in the media. We look forward to working with the Minister of State and the Department on this matter.

I agree with Senator Ní Chuilinn in that we should have a full debate in the Seanad on the issue of sport and the recommendations contained in the report. We look forward to calling for such a debate. Hopefully, Senators across the House will participate in it.

I thank the Senators for their contributions. I look forward to future debates on this matter. The more discussion and contributions we have around what we are doing and what we need to do more on, the better it will be in terms of what the Government and the State do to support both the sector and inclusion across it.

There are a couple of other points I would draw attention to which there has been progress on. Sport Ireland has been awarded €11 million from the European Social Fund to implement a social innovation and inclusion programme. Through that, it has established its Sport4Empowerment programme, which has resulted in a phased recruitment of social innovation and sport officers, mapped through 29 local sports partnerships. Across those 29 partnerships, 24 officers have been appointed up to now. Their responsibility is to implement a range of targeted programmes which aim to enhance the well-being, education and economic prospects of participants. The programme particularly targets marginalised cohorts, including ethnic minorities and people with disabilities, and strives to promote inclusivity and equal opportunities for all in sport.

In 2024, Sport Ireland published guidance regarding transgender and non-binary inclusion in sport and physical activity, fulfilling a key commitment of the committee's report. In October of last year, Sport Ireland published its Spotlight on Participation in Sport report, which showed that sports participation by members of the LGBTQ+ community has increased by 9% since 2021. In line with this diversity and inclusion policy, Sport Ireland conducts its Lets Get Visible campaign on an annual basis to coincide with Pride month. The campaign seeks to highlight the sporting achievements of LGBTQ+ people and acknowledge the importance of their visibility and representation in sport.

I look forward to working with both Senators and everyone across the House in relation to the next national sports policy and on how, in the context of the capital funding we will be doing through the community sports facilities fund this year, we can help clubs to continue the really good work they are doing in terms of including people and giving everyone the opportunity to participate in their chosen sports in their local communities.