Sport Ireland must refund Irish Women’s Hockey representational fees
Labour Party Local Area Representative Peter Horgan has called on Sport Ireland to refund all Irish Women’s Hockey Squad members their representational fee of €550 each as a gesture of goodwill that will bring to an end the shameful practice of forcing players to pay to represent their country.
“These women have brought pride, grit and determination to the finals in London and they should never have been in the situation where they had to pay to represent their country. The Ministers for Sport – Shane Ross and Brendan Griffin – must instruct Sport Ireland to make a once off payment to this team and put in place provisions that no team – no make the gender or status – will have to pay to represent this nation in their respective code’s finals.”
“The recent sports policy announcement seeks to increase female participant in sport by a mere 7% to 50% over ten years. We must be far more ambitious, Otherwise we are merely paying lip service to the heroics of these players and those that will follow.”