Catherine Martin is the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
She has been the primary Minister with responsibility for Sport throughout the lifetime of this Government, a period in which the recovery from Covid has been maintained, the National Sports Policy and associated funding requirement has been sustained, and in which sport has done well out of Government.
This is now the fourth year in which she has appeared on our list, but given the importance of a strong voice in Government, she is one of the first to be guaranteed a spot.
We stand now on the point of being confirmed as one of the host countries for the Euro 2028 Championship Finals, and also on the cusp of a new Government policy on the hosting of major events which can be great for sport and for the country.
She has tended to divest responsibility for sport in the main to the Minister of State, first Jack Chambers and in the past year, Thomas Byrne, but that in itself is a strength, and her voice at Cabinet remains of real importance.
The distraction of RTÉ’s summer of discontent has not been an issue and there are few countries in Europe that can claim to have such a well-regarded place in Government thinking.
She is Deputy Leader of the Green Party and served as a Councillor on Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council between 2014 and 2016 and was elected to Dáil Eireann in the constituency of her predecessor as Minister, Shane Ross.
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This is the 11th edition of our Sport for Business listing of 50 Women of Influence in Irish Sport.
Read more about the list and nominate who you think should be a part of it in 2023.
We are proud to publish the list in partnership with AIG, an organisation that has pledged its commitment to equality in its partnerships with Gaelic Games, Tennis, Golf and more, for whom “Effort is Equal” and with whom we have ambitious plans to extend the reach of this annual celebration of the Women who are making a difference.
This year’s list will be drawn as before from the worlds of leadership, partnership, storytelling, and performance.
We began this journey in 2013 when challenged that we would never be able to produce a list of twenty Influential Women in Irish Sport. The 20 stretched to 30, then 40 and 50 and it still does not do justice to the talent that is out there.
This year once more, to keep things fresh we will step up again, raising the number of new entrants to at least 40 percent of fresh names from last year.
It will be the hardest part to have some names replaced but if it was too easy it would be of less value.
The list we will build over the coming weeks is a snapshot of those women who are making a mark on how sport is played, consumed, grown, and delivered.
They are part of making the role of women in sport unexceptional by being exceptional in what they do.
