Report of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media: Motion
Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Evanne Ní Chuilinn (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit, an Teachta McConalogue, as ucht a bheith anseo. We have an important report to discuss. This was from the previous iteration of the Dáil and Seanad. It is a 2024 report on inclusion in sport by the sport committee. There were 17 recommendations. I am sure colleagues will speak to many of the recommendations. I will speak to approximately five of them. Inclusion in sport has never been more important, whether we are talking about women, disability, the LGBTQI+ community and ethnic minorities. It has never been a more important conversation, so it is important we revisit this report and look at where we are with the recommendations. I understand the report was published shortly before the most recent general election, so I am sure it has been difficult one to get back up and running with the recommendations. We will see where we are.
I first mention recommendation 15 about how "national governing bodies and Sport Ireland should support the growth of LQBTQIA+ orientated ... clubs." I will raise something on behalf of Senator Harmon who cannot be here. Before the summer recess, we raised a joint Commencement matter where we asked that this report be discussed. This is being raised on her behalf. I refer to the situation facing the women's team at Na Laochra Aeracha, Cork's LGBTQ+ inclusive GAA club. The women want to play Gaelic football and compete in the league, but they have been unable to properly establish the team because of the way the 2010 boundary is being applied. I am sure lots of Senators are aware of the 2010 boundary and the rules in Gaelic football. Some of the women who want to play for Na Laochra Aeracha live outside of that boundary, and as a result the club has been unable to get the numbers it needs to properly establish the women's team and play in the league. This is particularly difficult to understand when the LGBTQ+ inclusive clubs in Dublin and Belfast are able to participate in their respective competitions. There needs to be a consistent and transparent approach to how these rules are applied. Na Laochra Aeracha exists for an important reason. It provides an inclusive space for LGBTQ+ people and allies to participate in Gaelic games. For some members, including women returning to sport after many years away, that particular environment is what has enabled them to come back to Gaelic football in the first place. We know that retaining women and people from marginalised communities in sport is already a challenge. Rules should facilitate participation wherever possible rather than create unnecessary barriers to it. Senator Harmon is once again asking that the application of the 2010 boundary be reviewed and that the LGFA engage with Na Laochra Aeracha to find a practical solution that allows these women to register with their club and play competitive football. If inclusive clubs can operate and compete in Dublin and Belfast, we need to establish a clear and transparent route that allows the women of Na Laochra Aeracha in Cork to do the same. These women simply want to play football with their club. We should be doing everything reasonably possible to facilitate that. That is really reflected in recommendation 15 of this report.
A related matter is recommendation 16, which states that "The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and Sport Ireland should support the hosting of a major international LGBTQIA+ multi sport tournament." I know that is probably a big ask and would probably take years of planning, but we have proven that we are really good at sport tourism here. We have had the college football and the NFL. We will obviously have the Ryder Cup. We know how to put on a show and sell tickets, and go to games and events. I think the Department and Sport Ireland could maybe look at a festival of football or something for the LGBTQIA+ community. It certainly should be explored.
Recommendation 13 states:
Visibility is critical to removing barriers to inclusion in sport. Public service media should commit to broadcasting women’s sport on an equal basis to men’s sport.
An interesting line is that "Broadcasting of disability sports should not be limited to the Paralympic Games." That is one I feel strongly about. Paralympic sport is elite sport. It is sport for people with an impairment or disability, but these are elite athletes. We talk about Orla Comerford, Ellen Keane and Róisín Ní Ríain. These women are winning medals at world level and sometimes, in the case of Orla Comerford, competing in able-bodied races and winning even though she is T13 class vision impairment in the Paralympic Games. It is a conversation that should be had between the Department, Sport Ireland and the national broadcaster. There is absolutely no reason we should have to wait four years to see paralympic and disability sport, and particularly elite level para sport, on our airwaves.
Recommendation 11 states:
There should be a consistency of messaging across sports regarding acceptable behaviour. National governing bodies should ... [encourage] ... best practice ... on a multisports basis.
This is something I raised in the Seanad previously and it is about integrity in sport. It is something I will raise again. I think we need to look at a sport integrity unit. As the Minister of State knows, the next sport policy will be written next year and perhaps the integrity of sport is something that could be explored, whether that is safeguarding, anti-doping, corruption or match fixing. These are all things that were probably not spoken about when the most recent sport policy was written in 2014 or 2015. It is something that could be looked at.
I will talk about recommendation 12:
There is a need for accountability mechanisms for sporting organisations in receipt of public funds that do not meet high standards of inclusion. Such organisations must adopt robust procedures as part of their governance codes regarding discriminatory or abusive conduct.
There is one thing I want to home in on in that recommendation. It is about equality and inclusion. Again, we have had a lot of conversations about creating equal spaces and spaces that are inclusive for all. One of the most recent is the debate about integration of the GAA. Obviously, we have seen in the past couple of weeks that the process has reached a roadblock. It will be interesting to hear the Minister of State's thoughts about where that is, and whether the steering group is back up and running with a new chair. I will read into the record a statement I thought was powerful from the Mayo Ladies Gaelic Football Association, LGFA. I will not read the full statement because it is very long, but I think it gives a flavour of what has transpired and how people are feeling about it on the ground:
On the eighth of September, Dr Mary McAleese resigned as independent chair of the Steering Group on Integration, after the GAA told the group it could not commit to the 2027 timeline that all three associations voted for in 2022 and confirmed in 2024. She said she was “absolutely devastated”. She said the commitment to integration had “evaporated”.
The GAA’s response was that it is “just not ready”, that the deadline was “too ambitious”, and that its commitment remains “firm and absolute”. Its president has since explained that money was the sticking point before pivoting back to practicality.
[...]
In November 2025 every county in Ireland was instructed by the Steering Group to set up a County Integration Committee: two people from each association, an independent chair, monthly meetings with minutes returned to Croke Park. The terms of reference were broad, covering fixtures, facilities, finance and governance.
In Mayo, no such meeting has taken place in 2026. Not one. No minutes have been returned. As far as we can establish, that is true across this entire province and most of the country.
That is how this was done. Not with a decision. With inaction, without a word.
The statement continues:
Tradition dictates that everything defaults to the GAA and always has. The facilities, the funding, the first pick of dates, the coaches, the supporters, the media routine, the sponsorship, the volunteers, the status. The advantage of a 90-year head start, reinforced by hundreds of millions of euros of public investment, cannot be overcome through goodwill alone.
Institutions built around men develop structures that suit men. These structures are now held up as insurmountable practical constraints. Only two dressing rooms, only one good pitch, the standard of the toilets. We understand entirely how that happened.
But you cannot build something for one half of a community and then point to the state of the building as the reason that the other half must wait to come inside.
[...]
Dr Mary McAleese gave four years to integration and was called offensive for describing what she found. Mary turned on the big light. She did the hard part. The disparity can no longer be treated as something people simply did not know about.
[...]
We're already well into extra time.
Equality is always impractical until it is inevitable. The GAA can lead this change and take pride in it. That means turning its commitment into a timetable people can trust, shared decisions and access that women and girls can rely on.
We love the GAA, and you cannot love something honestly and lie about it at the same time.
These extracts from the statement by Mayo LGFA fit well into this discussion on inclusion in sport and they are something we should probably reflect on. I would be interested in the Minister of State's thoughts on the integration process given that we are talking about inclusion in sport.

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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/2026-09-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24