Sport Ireland is to invest more than €3m (£2.7m) as part of plans to create more sporting opportunities for women and girls in the country.

The funding will be made available for national governing bodies of sport through the re-launched Women in Sport Programme.

It follows the publication of Sport Ireland’s new Policy on Women in Sport earlier this year, a strategy document which identifies four key target areas in which additional funding is required – coaching and officiating; increasing participation; leadership and governance and increasing the visibility of women's sport.

The Women in Sport programme's key aim is to have equal participation between males and females in sport. The gender gradient in sports participation has closed from 15.7 per cent to 4.5 per cent since 2007 – according to the most recent Irish Sports Monitor report in 2017.

“One of the key objectives of the Government’s National Sports Policy is to increase the number of women and girls participating in sport and to eliminate the participation gradient between men and women," said minister of sport Brendan Griffin.

"While the gender gradient, at 4.5 per cent, is narrower now than at any point over the past ten years, it is important that this gradient is eliminated altogether.

"Sport Ireland’s new Women in Sport Policy and the re-launched Women in Sport Programme is essential in this regard."