Report of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-24 ============================================================ Linda Nelson Murray (FG), Industrial and Commercial Panel I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to discuss this today. I want to talk about something very simple with regard to inclusion in sport. Sometimes we talk about inclusion in terms of strategies, policies, targets and funding programmes. Inclusion is also something as basic as being able to go to the toilet. The joint committee's report on inclusion in sport, published in 2024, made it very clear that facilities are a fundamental part of inclusion. The evidence in the report is quite stark. The FAI told the committee that more than 30% of grassroots clubs do not have toilets or changing facilities designated for female players. The Camogie Association told the committee that female players do not always receive the same recognition and access to facilities as their male counterparts. When we talk about encouraging girls and women into sport, we have to ask ourselves the very basic question of whether we are actually providing the facilities that tell them they are welcome. Recently I shared a photograph on social media of a helmet and hurl outside a toilet which got something like 150,000 views. In April I attended a division 2 camogie match between Meath and Kerry. Unfortunately Meath lost by a point. On my way in I asked for the toilets and saw a female player run out of the public toilets and onto the field. This was someone at the top of their game. I was advised to go to the referee's toilets as they would be less busy. That toilet is where I saw the helmet and the hurl. I could not believe that another player was in that toilet but, as sure as anything, a Kerry player ran out, picked up her hurl and helmet and ran out onto the field. This might seem like a small thing but I do not think it is. Imagine being a young girl seeing this, as my two children did that day. My children are aged ten and 11. People present to play a sport, ready, for example, to participate in a county final, but when nature calls the facilities available are simply not adequate. This sends a message. We need to be very careful about the messages we send to young girls because the evidence shows they are already participating in physical activities at lower levels than boys. The committee's report highlighted Sport Ireland's evidence, which shows that just 13% of primary school girls meet the WHO physical activity guidelines compared to 23% of boys. At post-primary level it is 7% compared to 14% of boys. If girls want to stay involved in sport, we have to remove the barriers and not add to them. These barriers are not just about facilities. They include safety, access to training times, a lack of female coaches and leaders, sexist behaviour and language, the impact of caring responsibilities and whether girls see people like themselves represented and valued in sport. I was very blessed to go to the Katie Taylor fight a couple of weeks ago and I was proud to bring my girls. We only have to go and look at something like this to see how men and women can have somebody they can look up to. It was incredible and I do not think I will ever witness an atmosphere like it again. The report made 17 recommendations, including investment in accessible and fit-for-purpose facilities. There is an important principle here. We cannot call a sporting facility inclusive if the basic facilities are not inclusive. It is no good having a fantastic pitch if there is no appropriate changing room. It is no good encouraging girls into sport if there is no adequate toilet. It is no good telling women they are welcome if the infrastructure tells them otherwise. We have made enormous progress on women's sport in Ireland compared to when I was young and we should recognise this. My two girls play football in one club and camogie in another. They are two brilliant clubs and I have to say they have the very best coaches who give up their time voluntarily and are such amazing advocates for both sports. I love nothing more than watching GAA. Inclusion is not achieved simply because participation numbers improve or because more women are competing at elite level. It is achieved when a young girl can walk into her local club and know the facilities, coaching, environment and culture were designed with her in mind as well. We need to take the recommendations in this report seriously. When Government funding goes into supporting infrastructure, inclusion should not be an optional extra. I want to point out that two students from my school, St. Joseph's Mercy Secondary School in Navan, County Meath, contributed to the menstruation part of the report and I commend them on this. Accessible facilities, appropriate toilets and changing rooms, safety, transport and equal access should be part of the very basic standard. Ultimately, inclusion in sport should be very simple because if we want every child to have the opportunity to participate, we have to make sure every child can actually participate. --- 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