Sports Funding Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-06 ============================================================ Charlie McConalogue (FF), Donegal 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. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-06/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:54+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-06