The heads of the governing bodies for soccer and rugby in Ireland have attacked plans for gender quotas on their boards.

Both the FAI and IRFU say the measure is "tokenism".

Sports minister Patrick O'Donovan wants to cut state grants to sports bodies that don't have a certain number of women on their board.

Philip Browne of the IRFU says it's already difficult to find people who have enough experience in the game to serve on the national committee - and that's even harder where women are concerned.

FAI chief executive John Delaney also says measuring the input of women by their positions on boards is a poor idea: