What’s measured gets managed and what gets managed gets done. That truism will be put to the test in terms of a new National Policy for Sport in Ireland, the consultation period for which was launched yesterday and which will run until January 6th.
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross TD and the Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan TD, were joined by Paralympics Bronze medallist Ellen Keane and Republic of Ireland Manager Martin O’Neill in front of a large audience of sports administrators at the Aviva Stadium to launch the report.
The GAA’s Paraic Duffy was there along with John Treacy, Una May and Paul McDermott from Sport Ireland, Sarah Keane from Swimming and John Holian from Athletics. Ciaran Gallagher represented Gymnastics, Warren Deutrom Cricket and Donal Walsh Basketball.
Volunteers
Each will be adding their words to those of the general public, the volunteers, the players, the parents and the providers that the Department wants to hear from.
The aim of the consultation process is to give all stakeholders the opportunity to feed into the development of the new National Sports Policy. The policy will provide a framework for sport in Ireland over the next ten years and will set the agenda for Sport Ireland.
Submissions are invited from all relevant stakeholders over the coming weeks and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport proposes, following the consultation process, to prepare a National Sports Policy for submission to Government.
We asked Minister Ross for a likely timetable on this and he saw no reason why it could not be completed by next summer a view shared by Department officials who have already completed a significant body of work and who are now opening top for a public view on a range of themes including:
- Contribution of sport
- Participation
- High Performance
- Local and Regional Facilities
- National Sports Campus
- Governance
- Coaching
- Volunteer engagement
- Safety in sport
- Integrity of sport and international influence
- Sport in a cross-sectorial context
- Outdoor recreation
- Sports Tourism
- Financing Irish sport
- Measuring the impact of sport
“The framework will be the first of its kind for over 20 years and will set the agenda for sport over the coming years,” said Ross.
“Sport is so important in Ireland, historically, culturally and economically. Its benefits are numerous, from the obvious health and economic benefits to the increasingly important social benefits of inclusion and relationship-building.”
Engagement
“It is vital that we get engagement from everyone involved in sport from ground level up on all issues relevant to Irish sport, from participation to high performance.”
“The consultation process provides an opportunity to everybody involved in sport to input their views, be they administrators, coaches and volunteers to participants, competitors and spectators,” added Minister O’Donovan.
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“Sport Ireland, the National Governing Bodies of Sport, the Local Sports Partnerships and the many volunteers, coaches and administrators involved in sport are doing a lot of work throughout the country to increase participation in sport and support our elite athletes and the Government is strongly supportive of this work.”
“There is no doubt that there are challenges in a number of key areas to improve the delivery of sport and these need to be addressed in the new sport policy. It is only through feedback from all of those involved in sport that we can identify the challenges and opportunities and ensure that the right structures, programmes and infrastructure are in place to deliver the very best for Irish sport over the coming years.”
The consultation document, along with details of how to make a submission, are available here on the website of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.
The closing date for submissions is 17:00, 6 January 2017. We will certainly be taking a look at the substantial detail in the document and making our views known as should everyone who has a desire to make sport as good as it can be at every level.
