Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 October 2023
7. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to outline how the increases in funding for women in sport, announced in budget 2024, will take shape. [45182/23]
View answer63. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to outline the women's sport that will be advanced and supported at all levels with the announcement of a doubling in funding for women's sport; the plans that are under way to ensure more women and girls participate in all sports; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45548/23]
View answerThis question focuses on increased funding for sport for women and how the allocation in this year's budget will be implemented to encourage greater participation of women in sport.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 63 together.
The Minister and I were very pleased to be able to announce an increase of €2 million in funding for the Women in Sport programme for 2024. This is a very important funding scheme for sporting bodies and it will continue to support those bodies in putting programmes in place to increase women’s participation in their sports and to progress their strategic objectives for women in sport across all areas, including active participation, coaching, officiating and leadership.
The increased budget will also facilitate Sport Ireland to continue to lead out on programmes and initiatives that support the implementation of the Sport Ireland policy on women in sport. The additional funding that the Minister and I secured will double Sport Ireland’s budget under the Women in Sport programme next year. The funding will be administered by Sport Ireland, which will set out the terms and conditions of funding. It is anticipated that the 2024 scheme will open for applications in the first quarter of next year.
Sport Ireland’s funding guidelines for the Women in Sport programme continue to encourage organisations to develop women in sport programmes and initiatives focused on the key areas outlined in Sport Ireland's policy on women in sport, namely, coaching and officiating, active participation, leadership and governance and visibility. Investment in the programme to date has enhanced all aspects of female involvement in these target areas.
The Women in Sport funding programme has been in place since 2005 and since then, more than €22 million has been invested through the national governing bodies, NGBs, of sport and local sports partnerships.
There is often focus on the international teams and the national bodies but the real nuts and bolts of it happen on the ground. The Minister of State had the opportunity to visit Naomh Abán's mothers and others team, St. Val's in Kilmurry and Éire Óg's camogie and ladies Gaelic football teams. Deputy Murnane O'Connor is an enthusiastic supporter of women in sport and she would have mentioned many local organisations. We see the day-to-day energy and enthusiasm in local organisations and it is very important that the funding makes its way onto the ground to support them. Is there an outline of what the split will be between national bodies and organisations on the ground to ensure the everyday real energy on the ground is supported?
Research has clearly shown the inequalities in structures and supports for women in sport. Quite simply, more investment will lead to more exposure and more success. As my maths teacher in school used to say, nothing succeeds like success. Seeing women athletes, and broadening the definition of what it is to be sporty so that more girls can feel they can participate and identify with it, is incredibly important. This massively increased funding through doubling the budget is very welcome from the Department and the Minister of State. I congratulate the Minister of State. Like my colleague, I would like more information on when local clubs and local initiatives will be able to see some of the money so they are able to invest it in young girls so that we do not have, as happens now, girls at the age of 13 saying they are not sporty and are not participating in sport. We need to address this and we need to change it.
I will give as an example the Her Moves campaign, which is part the programme. This is designed to support, motivate and encourage more teenage girls to be active. Her Moves is being used by organisations at all levels, national and local, when rolling out physical activity programmes that target teenage girls using certain criteria. So far this year, 35 organisations have engaged with the Her Moves campaign. We had a brilliant launch for it at the Sports Ireland Campus. The website has had 57,000 hits and we will report on the campaign activity and how it is developed.
There are also other initiatives. The extra funding will allow Sport Ireland not only to develop initiatives, but to provide funding to sporting organisations that want to create initiatives to get funding through this. Recently, the GAA advertised a programme on encouraging women to get involved in leadership. The GAA has a course on leadership and people will take it up. It is funded through women in sport. In acknowledgement of the women's team qualifying for the World Cup, €500,000 extra has been provided to the FAI, separate from all of this, specifically for football initiatives for women in sport. There are also number of other initiatives and it is important to reiterate this.
We have brought in a new rule for sports capital funding that unless there is similar access for men and women, there will be zero funding. This will also apply to the large-scale sports infrastructure fund, LSSIF. Applicants for larger regional projects and LSSIF top-ups will have to produce access policies showing this to the public and to the users of facilities. In addition, there has been a long-standing commitment to have 40% of gender balance on NGB boards. I acknowledge some steps have been taken by NGBs. This will also change sport on the ground. If NGBs do not implement this by the end of the year, they will be subject to a 50% funding cut immediately. If an NGB does not have 40% of women on its board when organisations go to draw down funding from the current round of sports capital funding, it will be entitled to only 50% of the funding it has been awarded until the situation is rectified.
There are several groups of people, including those whom we want to encourage into sport and those who are involved in sport whom we want to retain. I am involved at a number of levels with Naomh Abán's ladies Gaelic football team. Throughout ladies football, playing careers are getting shorter and shorter. Girls are dropping out at age 16, 17 or 18. This is similar in other sports and so many other clubs. Is there an initiative that can be taken to ensure people stay with the sport or, if they do not want to stay playing, that they stay in some way or another with the club and stay active? These are people who have a positive disposition towards sport and we should look to encourage them or keep them involved in some way. Will some of this funding be focused on keeping people participating for longer?
My concern is another of the groups mentioned by Deputy Aindrias Moynihan, namely, those who are not involved in sports at all. We see poor levels of participation in sport and activity among young teenage girls. Much research has been done into this topic and how to break down these barriers. Girls talk about limited opportunities to try new things or learn new skills. I hope this investment, the doubling of funding, can provide new opportunities to learn new skills. Will the funding simply be for capital acquisitions for equipment and grounds, or can it be used to fund coaching and leadership staff as well? That would provide the place to learn a new skill and the person to teach it. The extra leadership would help to address the point made by Deputy Moynihan as it would give people something new to do and a new outlet, thereby keeping them involved in their club, sport or community even longer.
I call Deputy Cathal Crowe.
I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach for giving me a few moments to speak. I will speak briefly about those who play our Gaelic games. Yesterday, I hosted a group from the Gaelic Players Association, GPA, here in Leinster House. The money GPA members get trickles down to their pockets. The male players get €1,490, on average, while the female players are getting a take-home grant of €945. They explained that 37% of the money going to female members goes into the organisation to cover all sorts of administration, right down to the county physios and whatnot. Female players want parity. That was put at the top of the priority list by the Minister of State and his predecessor, Deputy Chambers. I want to see this issue addressed because we need parity. Female GPA members are players too and are very proud to wear their county jerseys.
I heard yesterday that there is now something called "player poverty". On county WhatsApp groups, players are saying they will not be back for next season because they cannot afford it and they need to get a job or move out of the county. This grant is essential. GAA is not a professional sport. The GAA also needs to play a role. It is making serious money. Everyone at GAA grounds, from those selling ice creams and programmes to the managers, is getting money, except the players. I am not suggesting Gaelic games should be professional, but the players should be bringing home some money in their pockets.
Regarding the points raised by Deputies Aindrias Moynihan and Costello, the Her Moves programme is specifically designed to keep teenage girls in sport. That is only one of the programmes. It is based on research, the Adolescent Girls Get Active report, done only two years ago. It was important research done by Sport Ireland that informs us about what the Deputies spoke about. We have facts in this regard.
The gender gap between men and women in sport was 15.7% in 2005. That was the percentage difference between men and women taking part in sports in 2005. It is now 5%, so the gap has narrowed but it was only 3.4% before the Covid pandemic. There is, therefore, a gap between the numbers of men and women who take part in sport and that is why this funding is important.
To address Deputy Costello's specific point, the funding is for current spending, coaching and initiatives. The capital funding is entirely separate.
On Deputy Cathal Crowe's point, the Ladies' Gaelic Football Association, LGFA, and the Camogie Association would acknowledge what we have done on capital funding. Absolutely no funding is available if there is not parity of esteem between men and women and similar access. That is the end of that. Things like being told not to use pitches because it would destroy the grass for the men, which one ladies player told me about, are over. We will not be funding facilities where that is the case. This message has got out loud and clear.
On the GPA and the lack of parity of esteem, there is not as much I can do about that, except to make the important point that I strongly encourage the organisations concerned in their integration journey. That will answer all these questions. The Minister and I had a meeting this week with the presidents of all three associations, as well as Mary McAleese, who is driving this, and several staff members. This is an important endeavour, which we fully support. In fairness to the organisations, they also want to see an end to what the Deputy referred to. I want to see an end to it. My wife is a former county player as well, and I have seen how things are not always equal in that regard. That must end, but I think it will end with the integration process. We wish that process very well. We want it to happen. Significant progress seems to be being made in this process, and I think this will be the answer to those issues the representatives of the GPA raised with me when I met them, and with the Deputy and other colleagues as well.
I thank the Minister of State.
