Mr. Kieran Mulvey:

With regard to what legislators can do, it is vitally important, as the Deputy said, that they take an active interest in this area because sometimes those who are involved suffer from feeling they are unique and there is something special about it; there is not. Ireland participates in a multiplicity of sports at many levels internationally. We have our own sports, which are part of our history, but, internationally, we are required as a country to put out teams and individual athletes and they have to be fully prepared. That requires facilities, training, resources and the capacity to achieve that. The ISC, OCI and Paralympics Ireland are attempting to achieve that by co-operation internationally and I am delighted that we are working in that regard, which is vitally important.

Legislators can be of particular assistance in ensuring as best they can that our budgets are protected. I would love to ask them to increase them but I am as realistic as the next person to know that will not be a possibility for the next two or three years but at least they should be protected at the current level because we are close to critical mass. We have been able over the past number of years to retain the funding for the NGBs, particularly the smaller bodies, but that means we have had to cut the larger ones substantially, including Special Olympics Ireland, the FAI, IRFU and GAA. The large field sports have taken a substantive hit to protect them. We have managed to work that out with them by engaging directly in extensive discussions rather than announcing the cuts. They are living with that but any further cut would begin to eat into these organisations and, therefore, we ask members to become advocates on behalf of sport.

The initiative Senator Coghlan has taken regarding physical education in schools is vital. I hear everybody talking about essential parts of the curriculum but if the youth are not captured by sport, they are lost forever. As we are aware from other social problems in our society, we have to ensure, given young people are captive audiences for nine to ten months of the year at all levels of the education system, the curriculum on physical education is promoted and is transferred across other curricular issues.

The other issue in the context of legislation is the protection of sports. As Mr. Treacy said and Mr. Hickey emphasised, we have to have clean sport. It must be free of any attempt to influence it by any form of drug taking. Second, that position must be represented internationally, as Ministers do at WADA and, third, it must be ensured minority sports are protected and supported because of traditions in this country. We have to ensure that not only individual athletes, but team sports are protected to sustain a hockey or a women's rugby team, for example, to ensure we achieve more team sports in international competition. The big challenge for us at the moment is to sustain 11, 15 or 20 people in participation over three or four years through whatever funding is made available. We just narrowly lost in both men's and women's hockey this year. It was terrible to watch the last puck of the game in Belfield. We need teams sports at the Olympics. It creates a team spirit and atmosphere around participation.

I do not wish to pass a slippery ball but on drinks I will offer a personal view, as we are only in initial discussions about this. I said at the launch of our annual report last year that there has to be a mature, reasonable debate around the drinks industry sponsorship of sport. Ireland is in a precarious situation. We do not have the same high level participation, budgets or private or philanthropic endowment that other larger nations can obtain. If we withdraw drinks sponsorship immediately without a transition, we will destroy some of our international teams. I am not being over dramatic about it and I am not making an issue of it. My office is on Haddington Road and the Aviva stadium and the RDS are beside it. There has been no trouble as a result of alcohol consumption after any of the matches I have attended in Croke Park or other stadia. However, I have witnessed people lingering long after concerts in the RDS. Why separate one element of our national activity from another? We have to be cautious about this. Alcoholism in this country is not about sport or sports sponsorship; it is a deeper societal issue. It affects our young people in primary, secondary school and universities. It is also an issue relating to communities. This has been an issue for this country for 200 years since we first brewed or distilled alcohol. It should not all be laid on sport. If we withdraw drinks sponsorship of sports in one fell swoop, the State will not replace the money lost by the IRFU, FAI and other sporting organisations unless it doubles or trebles the budget.