The Government has announced a ‘return of sport expert group’ to help guide all sports emerge from Covid19 lock-down, with GAA, soccer and rugby the only sports granted their own representatives.
Apart from those three sports, Cara – which advocates for
disabled people in sport - also has a representative.
There is no place for any representative from cycling or any other sport in the country despite swimming, running and cycling being the top three participation sports in the country.
The Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport has three representatives on the group; chairperson Peter Hogan as well as Betty Griffin, James Lavelle.
Sport Ireland has five representatives: Paul McDermott,
Dr Una May, Niamh O’ Sullivan, Shane Califf and Dr Jim O’Donovan.
The representatives from the “sport sector” are Dr Rod
McLoughlin of the IRFU, Dr Alan Byrne of the FAI, Feargal McGill of the GAA and
Niamh Daffy of Cara.
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Of the three specific sports represented, all will have
specific hurdles to clear related to crowd size that most other sports will not
need to factor in as they emerge from the Covid19 lock-down.
In other words, while most sports will not need to be
overly concerned about spectator numbers, none of those sports has been granted
representation on the group.
There is also no representation for those sports that are played indoors and which will require specific measures as a result.
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Furthermore, there are no Olympic sports on the group,
despite the very significant challenges facing all Olympic sport federations in
Ireland in preparing for the rescheduled Games in just over 12 months time.
The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross
said all national governing bodies of sport had been working to develop
protocols for returning to training and competition in their respective
sports.
He explained the expert group would assess the
consistency of the various protocols being prepared by the national governing bodies.
“Like every sector in society, those involved in
Irish sport at all levels have been hugely affected by the Covid19 crisis,”
Ross said in a statement on Saturday when unveiling the membership of the
expert group.
He added sports wanted to get back into action as quickly
as possible but that rapid progress in that regard was not yet possible.
“But the good news is that some low-risk sporting
activity can start up again next Monday in accordance with the public health
advice,” he explained of the Government’s Phase 1 for emerging from lock-down,
which starts on Monday.
“In my view, it is essential that the public can have
confidence in how sport is being restored in Ireland and I believe that this
initiative is an important confidence-building measure.”
Sport Ireland chief executive John Treacy said his
organisation had been liaising with the national federations about emerging
from lock-down and there was a “clear appetite for the reintroduction of sport
at all levels” but done safely.
“A lot of work is being put in behind the scenes to
ensure that sport can resume as quickly and as safely as possible,” he said,
adding sport had a big role to play in Irish society emerging from lock-down.
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