Report of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-24 ============================================================ Noel O'Donovan (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach I will just take a couple of minutes, not the full six minutes. I am delighted for the Minister of State to be here and I am delighted to take part in this debate. On two Saturdays during the summer just gone, I visited Sailability Kinsale with local councillor, Marie O'Sullivan. What an experience I had on those Saturdays. Sailability Kinsale is a volunteer-led organisation working in conjunction with Kinsale Yacht Club. It takes people with disabilities out on the water every Saturday morning for 20 weeks. It would do you good to go down there and see the smiles on people's faces on those Saturday mornings and the positivity it brings to people's lives. Seán from Clonakilty was involved in a very serious road traffic collision, which had horrible effects. His mobility, speech and much more were affected. When he spoke to us last Saturday, he told us that this gives him a reason to get up in the morning. There is also the Cork Sports Partnership in Kinsale and the yacht club I have mentioned. Donal and Bernadette are the volunteers who lead the programme. Sport Ireland is involved. This is a template that can be rolled out across the country as to how an volunteer-led organisation can be put in place. It comes down to funding, however. I have heard Members here mention funding. We have the sports funding that is to be announced in the coming weeks but there is potential for a separate pot of funding for disability inclusion within sport. A specific funding stream is needed at Department level. There is a ten-year policy being developed for sport but there is a real need for a specific level of funding for the things that we take for granted, such as changing rooms and facilities that people need, that can be the barriers to inclusion in sport. It comes down to funding, as we well know. I am thinking of the smiles on the faces of the people who are taking part in these events. We have a duty of care and a need within these Houses to ensure the policy and correct supports are in place for the sporting organisations as well as, ultimately, the funding. I thank the volunteers. I cannot remember the name of the lady who spoke from Sport Ireland last Saturday, but she had reason to meet former President Robinson last week. On the volunteer-led ethos of these organisations, there is a sense of good when you volunteer within your community, but we have a duty to volunteer. Those were the clear, straight words from former President Robinson. I thank the Minister of State for being here. It is an important debate. I look forward to policies with more inclusion but, ultimately, funding and separate funding streams. --- 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