Ireland: Sports Bodies Might Get 50% Cut in Funds Unless Their Boards are 40% Women

The Jewropean Jewnion wants this basically everywhere

There are sports that are virtually 100% male, probably even more so in a small country like Ireland.

You’re probably gonna end up with sports organizations that have more women on their board of directors than actually play the sport at all.

Irish Independent:

Sporting bodies, including the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), have been warned by the Department of Sport that their state funding will be cut by 50pc if they fail to meet a government deadline to have at least 40pc of their boards made up of women.

Thomas Byrne, the junior minister for sport, is understood to have set the 50pc reduction penalty in recent weeks and advised sporting bodies that this will be the consequence of failing to hit the gender quota for their boards. The cuts will be made to both current annual funding from Sport Ireland and capital funding streams for projects such as stadiums and other sporting facilities.

It is understood any such cuts will exclude decreases to specific streams targeted at increasing or supporting women’s participation in sport.

Mr Byrne recently met with Mary O’Connor, chief executive of the Federation of Irish Sport, for budget discussions and spoke about introducing the cut. ​


Mary O’Connor (I don’t know if that’s a tranny, I would have to hear it speak)

The minister has previously said the penalty for not meeting the target would be “significant”.

Ms O’Connor confirmed to the Sunday Independent that Mr Byrne spoke about a 50pc cut to her, but she said her understanding was this had yet to be formalised or confirmed by written correspondence from the department.

She said her federation provides a board recruitment service. It houses a database of independent directors who register with it as being available to sit on boards. Sporting bodies can contact it with their requirements for independent directors with various expertise.

​It is understood departmental officials have informally notified the FAI of the planned 50pc cut if it fails to meet the deadline at the end of this year. The FAI currently has four women on its board of 12, so it requires one man to be replaced by a woman to meet the 40pc target. Roy Barrett, the FAI’s chairman, announced earlier this year that he would step down to ensure it would meet the target. The FAI’s nominations committee is in the process of recruiting Mr Barrett’s replacement.

An FAI spokesperson said: “As per all sports in Ireland, the FAI is very much aware of the clear directive from the department regarding the need to reach 40pc female board representation by the end of 2023 and is working hard to ensure this happens.”

Women in Ireland play rugby, apparently

The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) said it passed amendments to its law at its annual general meeting in July that will enable it to meet the 40pc target. It will be holding an extraordinary general meeting in November to appoint new female board members.

“The Sports Action Plan sets a target for all National Governing Bodies to achieve 40pc gender representation on their boards by the end of this year,” the spokesman said.

“It is a priority to enable women to take more leadership positions in sport and the 40pc target reflects this. Sport Ireland continue to provide support to non-government bodies towards achieving the target of 40pc and monitor and report on progress. Data shows the average percentage of women on boards of NGBs has increased from 24pc in 2019 to 39pc in June of this year. Additionally, as of June, 39 NGBs/sporting bodies have obtained or exceeded the minimum gender on boards target of 40pc.”

The craziest part is “by the end of the year.”

That’s like, three months away.

Is it a joke?

Where are they going to find all these women?

The easiest thing would obviously be for 40% of existing board members to just register as trannies. You don’t even have to have long hair or anything, you just have to declare it.

Does no one see the obvious solution?

What do people think the point of all of these revolutions is?

I guess it’s just very emotional for some people.