Live at the Royal College of Physicians on Kildare Street.
Minister Michael Ring has arrived and will take his place beneath a screen revealing that 85,000 more people engaged in sport in Ireland each week during 2013 than was the case in 2011.
Irish Sports Council Chairman Kieran Mulvey:
“We are medalling like never before.”
Boxing, Badminton, Athletics, Cricket, Horse Sport, Paralympics, Rowing and Sailing all get a mention with a special point made to congratulate the Women’s Rugby World Cup team and Mark English.
“Irish sport is a good news story and reflect the money given by Government to enable sporting overning bodies to keep up their good work.”
“The capital programme is creating great facilities up and down the country.”
“Tremendous advance at a time we are still going through fiscal rectitude and responsibility.”
Minister for Sport, Michael Ring, TD
“We were able to minimise the cuts through a tough period.”
“Every cent spent on sport is well spent and we are hoping that the forthcoming budget will be well received by those in sport.”
“The figures on sports participation are very important in providing evidence to back up our fight to get the right level of funding.”
“Getting Women involved in sport has long been a priority and we are hugely encouraged by the closing of the gender gap which these figures reveal.”
“Volunteering remains a cornerstone and the fact that numbers are still significantly up on 2009 is something that is vital in enabling people to participate through clubs.”
Ciaran O’Leary of Ipsos MRBI:
“Research based on talking to 9,500 people around every aspect of their involvement in sport.”
“1.7 million people or 47.2% of the +16 population participate in sport on a weekly basis. That is up 2.4% on comparative figure from 2011 when last measured. 85,000 increase in real terms is equivalent to the population of Laois.”
“52% men, 42.7% women, the former up by 1.1%, the latter by 3.7%”
Overall percentage of population participating in top 7 activities:
- Exercise 12.2%
- Swimming 9.4%
- Running 8.5%
- Cycling 5.9%
- Soccer 5.9%
- Dancing 4.3%
- GAA 4.0%
41.5% participate in individual sport (up 2.5%) vs 10.9% in team sport (-0.5%)
“The focus in teams remains primarily on young males. Around 4 in 10 of those playing team sport also participate in more activities.”
“Around 1/3rd of those who play soccer or gaelic games also play the other.”
“31.3% meet physical activity guidelines of 30 minutes exercise 5 times a week.”
“Once women meet the guidelines they are more likely than men to maintain them.”
“On social participation 13.3% engage in volunteer activities, worth around €1 Billion in economic terms.”
“Club membership is 36.3%, mainly based around men’s sport. Worth noting the growth of structured environment of ‘running groups’ as opposed to within clubs.”
“Two thirds of sport remains outside the club structure.”
“Two thirds see sport as being too male dominated.”
Download a full copy of the report from here.
Read our more detailed look at the ways in which sports participation has changed and the challenges that face clubs in a new less structured sporting environment.
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From this morning:
The Irish Sports Council will publish its latest Sports Monitor in Dublin later today and Sport for Business will be there live to bring you the latest figures on participation and activity within the population.
The figures are expected to reveal another increase in the number of adults reaching their recommended level of physical activity and that the gender gap between men and women’s participation is closing.
Last year’s highlight was a marked increase in participation among women within the 35-44 age group showing the strongest increase from 34% in 2011 to 46% over the first six months of 2013.
That was part of an overall lift in participation from 44.5% in 2011 to 47% in 2013 and a corresponding additional fall in the number of those who undertake no physical activity to a new low of 12.1% from 13.2%.
Figures among the youngest group of 16-19 highlighted the inequality of engagement between young men and women with 83% of boys having participated in sporting or physical activity in the previous seven days versus only 66% of girls.
This is a figure we have railed against and look forward to seeing some measure of improvement driven by a greater focus on Women’s sport.
Join us live from 1130am as we reveal the 2014 figures.
