Report of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media: Motion
Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-24
============================================================

Garret Kelleher (FG), Industrial and Commercial Panel

Cuirim fáilte roimh an rún seo. Gabhaim buíochas leis na Seanadóirí Ní Chuilinn agus Harmon as ucht é a thabhairt isteach ós rud é gur ábhar thar a bheith tábhachtach é.
As a lifelong sports fan and participant, sport has given me an awful lot throughout the course of my life. It teaches a lot of life skills, regardless of whether those who enter into sport participate at an elite or high performance level or at a level where participation is more important.
The focus on increasing participation and inclusion in sport is vital and I very much welcome the motion before us today. As a father of four children, two boys and two girls, who are young and participate in sport, I would like to see the opportunities afforded all four of my children and to everybody else's children afforded equally regardless of gender.
Without doubt, and not dissimilar to the political arena, sport has been too male-dominated historically, and the more progress we can see towards change and equality in that regard has to be welcomed, be it in politics, sport or other areas of interest that are dominated by one gender over another.
I wrote my thesis on the participation of women in elections in Ireland, comparing success rates of men versus women across five general elections. The progress we have seen, particularly since the introduction of gender quotas in politics from the 2016 general election onwards, is to be welcomed. I am proud that the Seanad sits in this Chamber with 34 men and 25 women - we have a vacancy at present. We have not quite reached equality yet.
One of the key points in the report, point 6, concerning the emphasis that needs to be put on including women in leadership positions at organisational level in sport, is very important. As a man, I have to stand up here and say that, in sport, politics and other areas of society, there has been an element of misogyny over the years. As long as that fact is accepted and addressed, we are certainly moving in the right direction. If I can single out my colleague, Senator Ní Chuilinn, in particular, since she has got involved in politics and become a representative, her voice in the Seanad Chamber has been loud in regard to the area of equality, going beyond sport but especially focusing on sports and how we can improve sports at an organisational level.
Visibility, which is point 13 in the report, is a key one that needs to be addressed in order that there is an aspiration to have public service media broadcasting women's sport and men's sport on a par with each other and that there would be an emphasis on disability sports not being restricted to the Paralympic Games. I was fortunate to have attended the International Mixed Ability Rugby Tournament, IMART, in Cork in 2022 that was hosted by the Sunday's Well club in Cork. I commend the Sunday's Well club on the massive achievement in the organisation that went into that and hosting teams from a number of different countries. The participation of people with various disabilities in a sport, that being the centre of attention of a community and their getting to play in Musgrave Park was something that will stay with them for the rest of their lives, but we should not be over-reliant on volunteers progressing initiatives in that regard. That is something we, as political representatives and leaders in our communities, should look to help and encourage wherever possible.
On point 14, regarding athletes from marginalised communities, the push to have greater promotion, inclusion and participation is key. We all remember, a little over 30 years ago at this stage, when the boxer, Francie Barrett, was the flag-bearer for the Irish Olympic team at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, but we need something beyond tokenism. We need to see a genuine commitment to including those from marginalised backgrounds. The phrase "can't see, can't be" is used frequently when we refer to promoting women's sport. In my community in Ballincollig, we had a two-time world champion rower, Sanita Pušpure, who in my view did not get the credit or recognition she deserved, but the work she put in to dedicating herself to her chosen sport and reaching the elite level at the top of the world is something we need to encourage. As I said at the outset, however, the encouragement of participation of women, girls and people from marginalised backgrounds in communities at all levels is something that needs to be at forefront of our minds.
I commend Senators Ní Chuilinn and Harmon on bringing the motion to the House.

---

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