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The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross, TD, and the Minister of State with responsibility for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin, TD, today held the inaugural meeting of the new Sports Leadership Group. The Leadership Group consists of 15 key stakeholders from both the public and private sectors and has been established to drive implementation of the Government’s National Sports Policy 2018-2027, published at the end of July.

Commenting on today’s meeting, Minister Ross said: “The National Sports Policy has clearly defined our collective vision for sport and physical activity in Ireland over the next decade. I look forward to working with the members of the Sports Leadership Group to ensure that this vision is supported and achieved. This group represents a broad spectrum of relevant Government Departments, Sport Ireland, the wider sports sector, Local Government, the Leisure Sector and the Volunteer Sector who are all key stakeholders in this process. Today’s assembly marks an important step forward in implementing our National Sports Policy.”

Minister Griffin said: “The work of the new Sports Leadership Group is vital in ensuring that the National Sports Policy goes from a statement of intent to becoming genuinely impactful across each of the policy’s objectives. Over the next nine months, the Sports Leadership Group will work to agree a prioritised action plan for sport and physical activity that will create a clear and realistic pathway to meeting our 2027 targets. A clear monitoring and evaluation system will be put in place to ensure that we remain on track and our progress will be routinely reported to the Cabinet Committee on Social Policy. I look forward to working with the Sport Leadership Group over the next few months in bringing this priority plan to fruition. I was really impressed with the commitment and energy shown at today’s meeting and I am confident that we will make very good progress in 2019.”

Notes for Editors
The Sport Leadership Group is co-chaired by Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross TD and by Minister of State, Brendan Griffin TD.

The members of the Sport Leadership Group are:

Minister Shane Ross, TD

Minister of State, Brendan Griffin TD

Mary O'Connor Federation of Irish Sport


Deirdre Lavin Local Sports Partnership Sligo
Sarah Keane Olympic Federation of Ireland
John Fulham Paralympics Ireland
Conn McCluskey Ireland Active


Niamh Daffy CARA Centre
Alan Quinlan Former Rugby International

Shane O'Connor Olympic Federation of Ireland – Athlete’s Commission


Nina Arwitz Volunteer Ireland
Mr Danny McLoughlin, The County and City Management Association

John Treacy Sport Ireland

Ken Spratt Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

Rita Sexton Department of Education
Kate O'Flaherty Department of Health
Geraldine McCarthy Department of Children and Youth Affairs