The Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Sports Participation Strategy 2018-2022 has been officially launched by An Cathaoirleach, Cllr. Ossian Smyth with the core objective to get more people, more active, more often.

The launch took place on the 26th November in the beautiful Marlay Park House and was attended by a range of politicians, partner agencies and local club volunteers. Speakers included John Treacy, Chief Executive of Sport Ireland, and Agata Suszczynski a PE teacher in St. Tiernan’s Community School who has many years’ experience engaging young people in physical activity.

Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Sports Partnership will be the driving force behind this 5-year strategy which will focus on working with all interested agencies and groups to increase participation in physical activity and sport in the County. The successes achieved over the past few years have proven that the most effective way to achieve mutual goals in active participation is through communication and collaboration.

The strategy aims to build and further enhance all of the positive work already taking place and to particularly work with all partners across the County to deliver the best possible outcomes for all local communities. While catering for all ages, abilities and backgrounds there will be a focus on set target groups which have been shown to have a proportionally lower level of participation.

Speaking at the event An Cathaoirleach, Cllr. Ossian Smyth confirmed Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Councils continued commitment to promote the development of sports and physical activity for all. In highlighting the reason for this investment he stated ‘we all know that sport and activity is good for us and it is important that the opportunity to avail of the range of health benefits is accessible for everyone irrespective of gender, age, ability or income’.

In Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown we are very lucky to have access to a wide range of sports facilities, including the magnificent coastline, the Dublin mountains, parks, pitches and the public leisure centres around the County. In addition the thousands of volunteers that give up their time and energy across all sporting types and activities enable opportunities for so many people young and old to be active.

This was endorsed by Pat Smith, Chair of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Sports Partnership, who announced ‘I want to congratulate all those wonderful volunteers who unselfishly contribute so much to the enriched quality of life to their local communities. They are the real heroes of modern society.’

To view the full County Sports Participation Strategy 2018-2022 please click here...

 To view the Strategy Summery in Irish please click here...