Report of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-24 ============================================================ Evanne Ní Chuilinn (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach I will not need five minutes. I do not think I have ever stood here before and said that I echo every single word that every Senator has said during the course of a debate, so I thank them all very much. I appreciate the effort everyone made to be here. Senator Harmon and I were clear that we did not want this report to sit on a shelf. We were not on the sport committee when this report was completed. I commend the previous committee on sport on the work it put into this because there was a lot of stakeholder engagement and it is an important issue. I have learned two encouraging things from listening today. First, we are all on the same page. Everyone here, along with every community and county, has a story about what is working well and where we are seeing the dividends of investment where people are getting greater access to sport and physical activity, whether that is people from the LGBTQI+ community, people with disabilities or women. Women are still in the minority in the sport world, and we must acknowledge that. We have made enormous strides, however. As someone who has spent 25-odd years in the sport sector as a professional, I can tell the House that it is utterly different from what it was 20 or 25 years ago. That is positive and it is down to a lot of the investment the Minister of State mentioned regarding women in sport. I am encouraged to hear about the disability in sport lead appointed in Sport Ireland and Sport Disability Week that took place last December. We look forward to the 2026 week. I am sure many Senators will be able to visit some of the events happening during that week. Senator Mark Duffy mentioned how inclusion in sport encourages social inclusion, which really rings true. It encourages people to feel welcome. That is what this report is all about. All 17 recommendations are trying to get to the point where people see themselves reflected in policy and see a place that is welcoming for them to take part in sport. The Minister of State mentioned the next national sport policy. Obviously, it is going to be an important document. The first national sport policy is coming to its end. It was the first policy of its kind, and it was transformative for the industry. It put funding on a solid footing and brought about greater investment in infrastructure. There is a lot of planning in that regard. All bar five of the 47 actions in that national sport policy have had progress, so it is important. It means the next iteration is going to be even more important because the sporting landscape is completely different compared to 2016 before the 2017 sport policy was put in place. I welcome the engagement on the next national sport policy. It would be useful to have many of these recommendations looked at ahead of the consultation process for the next national sport policy, which I am sure the Minister of State’s Department will engage in. The Minister of State also mentioned sporting volunteers. Volunteers were not mentioned much today because we were talking about inclusion, but volunteers are everywhere, be it in inclusion sport or equality. Every sport in this country would grind to a halt without the volunteers on the ground. There is a need for continued and increased support for volunteers, such as training around autism or the LGBTQI+ community, in order to ensure volunteers feel supported in their roles. Basically, without volunteers, sport in this country would fall apart. I acknowledge those volunteers. I thank all those who have contributed to this debate today. I thank the Minister of State for giving so much of his time. It is much appreciated. I wish to keep this issue on the agenda. The best way to achieve that is to have another discussion in a few months’ time about the next national sport policy. Gabhaim buíochas le gach duine ar fad. --- 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