Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their presentations. Many areas have already been covered. Mr. Treacy mentioned some of the initiatives in sports that were taking place in towns and villages and he said they were getting fairly competitive. I understand that much sport at underage levels is now non-competitive. Is there a better take-up in sports because of this or has there been a drop off or change in psychology because it is not competitive? When I was a child growing up, it was all about winning the game. Trying to get on the team would drive one to do better. Have any studies been done on whether there is more participation now with regard to involving children who were not traditionally interested in sport?

How to navigate lunchtime and playtime was mentioned. I would like to go a bit further than this and speak about sport time and playtime because everything seems to be getting very structured for children. Sport is play, but some people are just not into sports and they are into playing.

How do we encompass performance arts? Have there been any discussions on this? There is a crossover between performance arts, particularly dance, and sports that perhaps would catch people who traditionally are not into sports. I say this as a soccer player.

I want to make reference to the Croom climbing wall, which is at my back doorstep. Has it been a success case for attracting more people? I am really trying to target people who are not traditionally interested in sport because anybody who is interested will join the local team anyway and will be into fitness. I want to target the people on the margins.