Minister of State for Sport Jack Chambers made his first appearance on OTB AM this morning, interviewed by Adrian Barry and Eoin Sheahan.
He spoke on the recent GAA breaches and getting people back to playing sport, about the vaccination of Olympians taking its place in the national sequencing and about the role of Government in the sporting life of women and children.
On GAA Breaches of Public Health Measures
“When the Monaghan and Dublin incidents happened we had discussions with Croke Park urging them to reinforce the rules and that teams needed to comply with the staggered return of sport. To be fair they very very quick to send a strong message where President Larry McCarthy and Director General Tom Ryan urged teams to comply with the rules.”
“To be fair players and teams have played a very strong role in sending out the message on public health throughout the past year.”
“It’s not my role to determine a sanction. The incidents were very disappointing but it’s up to the individual organisations to deal with them.”
“We’ve provided strong funding to help the sport get through the impact of Covid and we are discussing that in the next phase at the moment.”
“There has to be a clear message that actions have consequences.”
GAA Elite Status
“There was an exemption granted at the end of last year to get the Championships played.”
“We have a good relationship with the Gaelic Games authorities and they did not feel it was appropriate to have inter-county training at the start of this year.”
“The restoration of games now, and the expansion of the elite status to include inter-county players, and others, will take place on Monday, now that public health is in a better place.”
Getting People Back to Sport
“Others being able to exercise, particularly out of doors, is under review now as well.”
“An exemption for training in pods out of doors took place last year and we have been working to get that restored when it was safe to do so. Originally that was going to be later for young people so we’ve moved a bit faster on that but the aim is to get more back soon as well.”
“As part of the Sports Action Plan, we have been working on we are hoping to make up for lost time by enabling more encouragement to get people back into sport and exercise.”
“We have a Sports expert Group that brings in medical advice from sports bodies and we engage widely, including in youth forums. We are aware of the importance in terms of physical and mental wellbeing.”
“It is very important that when we get it back that we keep it back.”
Vaccination of Olympians
“The IOC view is that each country should follow the rollout programme and the sequence in place in each programme.”
“We have sequencing based on age which is transparent and fair and the sensitivity on maintaining this is fully accepted by representatives we engage with.”
Follow Up to 20×20
“We want to embed a lot of the ideas that arose from the campaign into policy.”
“On governance, we want to make sure there is proper balance. We’ve had lots of soft targets in the past which have made some impact but not in all cases.”
“We are looking at quotas as a harder target and there being conditionality when it comes to funding.”
“Some governing bodies appear not to be taking this seriously and if the levels attained in senior positions of leadership are not being met, what does that say about the ripple impact at all other levels of particular sports.”
“All girls playing sport today need to know that Government and those running their sport are serious about genuine equality.”
Sports Priority in Government
“This is a huge priority for Government. That can be seen in terms of the funding we made available last year and this year.”
“One thing that can be strengthened could be to create a bigger role for what sport can do in terms of public health and in our education system.”
“The level of physical activity sometimes depends on the culture in a particular school and we hope to feed sport into more areas across Government for a positive result.”
Sport for Business Partners
