Mr. Mark Durkan:

Deputies Seán Crowe and Brendan Smith referred to the Special Olympics in Croke Park in 2003. I can remember coming to Dublin, driving behind a growing phalanx of police motorcycles. They were not escorting me but I happened to be in the queue of traffic, and as we passed each town more and more cars joined the line of traffic. They were assisting those who were involved in that spectacular night. Other speakers have referred to the quality, ethic and strong commitment of the volunteers. I have seen athletes in the Special Olympics who have gone on to become volunteers, and do so very effectively, during Derry's year as UK City of Culture. Some of them were ambassadors for the city of culture. It is clear that these volunteers gained the confidence, experience and social capacity to do that work from their experience at the Special Olympics. In so many ways the Special Olympics provided not just a physical outlet and pastime for people but was part of their emancipation. It has equipped and involved them and made them able to represent the civic representatives in different capacities. That is of major importance.

In the run-up to the Special Olympics in 2003, I was the then Minister for Finance and Personnel and was asked if there would be funding from the Northern authorities. I got into some trouble by more or less pre-indicating that there would be money in the executive programme fund and as far as I was concerned at least €1 million would be allocated to the Special Olympics. The good thing was that we were able to make commitments at that stage at the level of the Executive rather than waiting for an allocation from various Departments. A few years ago, I spoke on the case for funding on the Northern side for the current phase. The discussion was on how to frame the task and Special Olympics Ireland answered that very much by framing the offer to the various Departments, avoiding the problem of having to busk around the different Departments hoping to catch a bit of money here, a wee bit there and a bit of slippage somewhere else. The idea of having pre-agreement on the contributors to the basket is a very important model. I think many others will be jealous, not just in this House but also in the North. It is not easy to get cross-departmental funding. In this case, the worth of the work the Special Olympics is able to do and the outcomes it is able to show is compelling and is in the policy interests of so many different Departments.