Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation and acknowledge this forward thinking or rethinking. It is good to see representatives from Rethinking Ireland here as well. When we talk about sport in Ireland, we look at all the positives at local level. We are fortunate. We have GAA pitches, we have had a successful sports capital programme down the decades, and the physical structure is quite good compared with different countries. We are playing catch-up with countries like France which invests €40 billion of Government and private funding in its sports facilities.

I would like to get the witnesses' thought on access. Invariably, when a club leads on an application, there are criteria in the application saying the facilities will be used within the community and accessed by all the community, but in some instances that does not happen. I do not mean sports facilities per se. I am talking about schools as well. Every new primary or secondary school built now has a gymnasium. What percentage of them are closed at 3 p.m.or 4 p.m.? What sort of forward thinking has gone into the area of physical activity, nutrition and the curriculum, especially in light of the new leaving certificate programme where physical education is on the curriculum in many schools on a pilot basis? That eventually will be rolled out nationally. Since Covid, primary school children are in the yard much more during break time and even class time in some instances. The value of physical education has never been more accepted as an important factor in a child's development, not just in a sporting sense.

The first thing to accept is we need more investment. Even though we have a good standard and infrastructure to an extent, we can go further, especially when we look at a lot of municipal facilities in the North. If you go to a GAA tournament or cross the Border from Lifford into Strabane, there are many communal sports facilities there. Whether it is athletics, soccer, Gaelic games or rugby, there is a sharing of facilities. How will this model incorporate that vision and take access into consideration, including access for all sports to shared facilities, as well as gender and age inclusivity?

I recently hit the half century. Senator Blaney and I used to kick lumps out of each other on a football pitch between Glenree and Whitestrand. When we hit the ripe old age of 30 or the early 30s, we all gave up sport. We talk about health, longevity and people's improving health standards. How many people have been active sportspeople and eventually get to a stage where they are not active anymore?

How does the model look at access, age and gender inclusivity or is it left to the clubs? Is it hands-off? Is it just a mechanism, a construct and a way of attracting private investment? Is it just looking at those criteria, or is part of the model about encouraging access and inclusivity? No doubt Ms Carty and Ms Mortell's organisations would be into that in terms of their philosophy. I especially acknowledge the work UEFA and the FAI do in trying to bring boys and girls along at a grassroots level and not just a national level. I was in Georgia last week and they look at our infrastructure with envy. UEFA and the FAI's umbrella, focus and national and international vision are helping to lift countries up. I acknowledge that and Mr. McGroarty's work through the FAI and UEFA down the years.