7. 5. Statement: Major International Sporting Events

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:38 pm on 13 September 2016.

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Photo of Julie Morgan Julie Morgan Labour 5:38, 13 September 2016

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Very swiftly, because I know we’ve got very little time, I want to congratulate all our women and men sportspeople who’ve made us so proud. I’m very pleased that the Cabinet Secretary is emphasising grass-roots and community sport, and can he assure me that any money that is given from the Welsh Government will be used equally to benefit women and men? Because I think he mentioned in his statement that £1 million a year of Welsh Government money has gone to encourage grass-roots football. I spend quite a lot of time on football fields on a Saturday morning and a Sunday morning and I don’t see many girls playing, to be quite honest. It’s mainly boys and just the occasional girl. I know there is much more emphasis on girls’ football now and women’s football and much more publicity and much more acknowledgement that it is very important that women and men benefit from sport, but I wondered what monitoring is actually being done by the Government to ensure that the money that we give from the Government is going equally to both sexes.

On the Commonwealth Games, I was very disappointed that we didn’t bid for the Commonwealth Games, because I felt it was a huge opportunity. I went to Glasgow and you could see the transformation of the city that happened during that period and through the lasting legacy, so I’m pleased to hear that in the future we would consider bidding for the Commonwealth Games, and hope that we would be able to involve the local authority members to do a bid that could bring so much to Wales.