Meeting with Minister of Sport

On Monday Dec 7th, President of IMAC, Brendan Dowling and Vice-President Roy Baker joined a 90 minute Sealeaf Video meeting with Minister of Sport, Jack Chambers. ITA as the sole ITF Taekwon-Do Association member of IMAC has significant input into the meeting.

Amongst other issues, Roy raised the need for an agreed phasing of all Levels of restrictions (1 to 5) and outlined the challenges facing IMAC Elite and high performance Athletes and called for fair treatment across ALL sports, alongside the urgent need for a return competition program, and the fact that many arts have lost a generation. Brendan used the opportunity of the meeting to welcome the eventual introduction of the 'Pod of 1’ concept, the need for Sport Ireland and the Department to actively promote the sharing and access to community, school and council facilities. He urged the need for this access too be continued into Level 4 and for NGB approved activities.

The Minister welcomed the feedback from all the participants, invited all NGBs to take part in a process of submitting written submission on the state of their Sport and the ways for in the current circumstance. Minister Chamber also assured us that he plans to hold these meeting on a regular basis to keep in touch with the emerging needs of all the sport.

IMAC has been invited to make a written submission to Minister Chamber to allow him "consider all available evidence and data for the purposes of informing the development of tailored proposals and approaches for future mitigation measures. It is envisaged that such proposals would enable the Government to review and potentially adapt the suite of public health measures currently applying to sport and exercise activities.” IMAC looks forward to responding to this invitation on behalf of our membership within the 9 IMAC National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs).