Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

The Minister informs me that on the arts side of the Department, a safety programme is being established along the lines of what the Deputy spoke about in terms of ensuring women and girls feel safe in sports settings. That will be rolled out in a number of venues, including sports clubs.

On the sports side, the sports organisations, in fairness, have come a long way. There is still a bit of way to go. They are very conscious of this issue. It took the threat of a 50% cut in funding to get some of them over the line to achieve 40% female representation on their boards. Now, however, everyone not just accepts but welcomes this. There are no regrets about it and no one is looking back. The resistance that was there looks a bit ludicrous at this point. It is done now and it will have a cascading effect. I have absolutely no doubt about that. I come from a household in which my other half is the top sportsperson. I know some of the issues she has faced over the years. As Minister of State with responsibility for sport, I have been working to see how we can address those issues at a national level.

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