The all-Ireland road bowling championships were held in my local village, Ballinagree, over the weekend. Many Members may not be familiar with the sport of road bowling.

It is very much a minority sport. It is very popular all over Cork, in many parts of Northern Ireland and some western counties. The gathering that was there at the weekend was of hundreds of people. There were six major competitions varying from under-18 men and women, to junior men and women and intermediates. It was such a fantastic display of our community and of the sport. I commend Ballinagree Bowling Club which was the club hosting the competition.

A lot of these minority traditional Irish sports do not get the recognition they deserve. I attended a score last week which was the senior ladies' Munster final where our local lady, Denise Murphy, was unfortunately defeated, but to see the number of people out in support was just incredible. I commend Denise who, as I said, is from home. She is from Ballinagree. She has an under-18 world title and an intermediate all-Ireland title and she is a fantastic representative for women in sport. We are also lucky that Briege Corkery, who has numerous all-Ireland medals for Cork camogie and football, officially opened the competition on Saturday. These women in sport need to be promoted an awful lot more than they are. My colleague, Senator Ní Chuilinn, does a lot of work on this. I ask that we would have the Minister come in to discuss minority sports, and, more particularly, the role of women within minority sports and the way in which we can promote them more. Road bowling, for instance, is a fantastic sport. I really would like to see more young people going out getting involved in it. It is a serious test of skill and is really a community endeavour. Finally, it would be remiss of me not to wish both Kerry and Mayo the best of luck in the All-Ireland final. I have decided not to pick a side.