Sports Funding
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-03
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Thomas Gould (SF), Cork North-Central

I am very passionate about women's sports. My wife and daughters play camogie. In the constituency I am from, so many young women and girls are successful in sport. Tonight, unfortunately, the soccer team was beaten 2-1 by France and a girl from Knocknaheeny, Denise O'Sullivan, was playing centre field. There are girls like Amy O'Connor and Amy Lee playing Cork senior camogie and winning all-Irelands, Nathalie O'Brien playing in a world cup, basketballer Edel Thornton, Ellie Murray in boxing and Megan Leahy in taekwondo - brilliant young women and girls, but none of them owns a pitch or a facility. As the Minister of State said, if you do not have a lease you cannot get capital funding. A week ago, Wexford went to Clare to play a camogie match. They had nowhere to tog out beforehand, the pitch was a disgrace and there were no hot showers afterwards. It would not be accepted in any male sport but it is acceptable for women. The lease has to be worked on. Women need sports; they need pitches.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-03/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-03