Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Mulvey for his presentation and wish him the best. I respect his honesty. He was passionate about the way he sees this. I was surprised that he was so straightforward in terms of what has happened. It is a great pity that we have Mr. Mulvey here to talk about all the issues around Sport Ireland but have ended up debating the whole Billy Walsh issue. I will touch on it briefly, but it seems that there will be two casualties. It looks as though the IABA is untenable from what Mr. Mulvey says. Its position is untenable into the future one way or another whatever happens with Billy Walsh. It is deeply insulting that anyone would ask a manager or someone in charge not to have an interview. I can imagine what would happen if someone told Joe Schmidt that he could not be interviewed. That is his job and part of the way a manager runs things. We are going to lose a fantastic man whose record is second to none and it is all down to bureaucracy and positions and people wanting to wield a bit of power. I will say no more on that. I am so disappointed with the IABA.

The sports campus is on the edge of my constituency and is an outstanding facility. With all the different sports that are going in there, it will have a huge impact over time. What other sports does Mr. Mulvey consider need to be addressed from a long-term point of view? There are a lot of sports. I am into karate which is one of the things I have been doing all my life. It is not really recognised in the Olympics. There is also the Irish trotting issue. We have horse racing and the conflict with trotting trying to get on the map, notwithstanding that it is big as a sport in other European countries and in the USA. What is Mr. Mulvey's opinion on some of this? We have not mentioned the Paralympics and our huge successes there. In general terms, we are punching above our weight as a country.

I want to ask about the all-Ireland approach. There is Sport Northern Ireland. The debate many years ago was about an all-Ireland soccer team. We have an all-Ireland rugby team. Is it Mr. Mulvey's intention to engage in that argument again? We should have an all-Ireland soccer team. It should be back on the table for discussion. It is something Mr. Mulvey might let us know about.

We are trying to push the health message to schools. There are issues of obesity for many pupils. Can Mr. Mulvey give us an idea of how Sport Ireland works regarding the different schools and getting the message out?