Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I referenced the Department of Education and I met representatives from Sport Ireland this morning in respect of this matter. We have a new winter initiative, the Let's Get Back campaign, which is based around trying to encourage the return to indoor and outdoor sport. When it comes to schools, representatives from the Department of Education and a couple of the working groups at Sport Ireland have worked on participation and the physical literacy plan that will be launched next year. A great deal of work has been done by the Department of Education on the use of school facilities in recent times. The Deputy will probably know that in his community, and across many communities, we are seeing sporting infrastructure being integrated into educational facilities and the use of that infrastructure in the evenings and during the day. It is a key piece in the context of trying to marry physical activity and sport with our education system more generally.

We will have ongoing engagement with the Department of Education. The Covid pandemic has obviously presented a challenge with protocols and, as we all know, the school setting has been challenging for the past 18 months. As Minister of State with responsibility for this area, I am keen to see much greater co-operation and to build on a lot of the work many of our governing bodies do. For example, members of the GAA or other sporting bodies go into schools. There are development officers who facilitate basketball, some football and other activities. We are trying to support and enhance that, in addition to strengthening coaching. We will launch a new coaching plan in the coming weeks that will be about strengthening the whole coaching system across the sports system generally and the opportunities that are there between schools and our sporting system. It will be a major opportunity to improve physical literacy among our young people and give them the tools to promote physical activity in their lives. That is something we are ambitious about.