Minister Charlie McConalogue: Improving Sports Participation | Answering your questions on Sports funding across Ireland | OFF THE BALL
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Off the Ball Daily. Welcome back. So the Irish Sport Monitor was launched today in Dublin. These are the latest figures on participation released by Sport Ireland. So the top line is that more people than ever before, 2.16 million to be specific, are taking part in sport on a weekly basis. And weekly sports participation now stands at 48.4% of the population. In terms of specifics... Personal exercise remains the most popular activity, one in five adults participating weekly. Then you've got swimming, running, cycling and weights training as the rest of the top five most popular sports. Then you've got Gaelic football, soccer, dancing, yoga and Pilates, all recording weekly participation rates of 3%.
Golf is in at 2%. So participation levels significantly on the rise, almost 2%. Every age group has recorded a rise since 2017. But then on the other side of things, weekly recreational walking rates have fallen by 4% compared to 2024. And the percentage of people meeting national physical activity guidelines through sport and walking alone fell from 40% to 38%. So to discuss all this and the upcoming round of the Community Sports Facilities Fund, very happy to say to Charlie McConnelogue, Minister of State with responsibility for sport, is with us here in studio. Minister, thanks for coming in. How are you keeping?
I'm very good, thanks, Owen.
How many people are participating in sports in Ireland?
Really good to be with you, thanks.
So give us the top line on all of those figures. What's given you the most encouragement? What's worrying you the most when you go to the sports monitor?
I suppose the most encouraging thing is actually the fact that we do have so many within society actually participating in weekly sport. And that's something that's very encouraging. I think it's a great credit to the work that goes on across the country, particularly through our clubs and through the many volunteers that provide that opportunity within communities for people to be able to participate in sport. So, and obviously, listen, we know particularly with, you know, people having really busy lives now, also the increased digitisation of our lives and the distractions that we have and the more reasons to be in the house as well. The fact that we are seeing very strong figures is encouraging.
But we do need to see ourselves and we do want to continue and do more. And as you say, we've over 2.1 million people now on a weekly basis participating in sport. And that's something that we've been tracking over the last number of years. And what was published today was, as you said, the Irish Sports Monitor. That's something we've been doing now for many years. I want to recognise the work of Sport Ireland and Benny Cullen in particular, who've led out with his team in terms of pulling that information together. with Ipsos B&A who do the survey and has carried out the interviews, 8,000 people across different age groups to make this assessment. And I think it's important we look at it in terms of taking learnings as to what more we can do.
And we do see in relation to a couple of particular challenges, for example, we see the gender gap between men and women as still being a challenge. The figures this year would show that it's at 4%. So 50% of men on a weekly basis are participating in sport, whereas it's 46% of women. And that's something now working with Sport Ireland and working with our national governing bodies, we want to try and invest further to address.
What are the most popular sports in Ireland?
And we've taken some steps in relation to that. For example, in the last year, 18 months or so, we've appointed a national women in sport lead, Nora Stapleton, with Sport Ireland, who's working with governing bodies and sporting bodies to try and put in place programmes with them that's going to particularly try and target more women to participate in sport.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:44
2
How many people are participating in sports in Ireland?
1:44–3:41
3
What are the most popular sports in Ireland?
3:41–18:39
4
What challenges are faced regarding gender participation in sports?
18:39–24:56
5
How is the government addressing disability participation in sports?
24:56–41:29
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from OTB Football
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