Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No, I do not mean to say there are negotiations going on. It is just that there has not been a Minister of State in either Department with special responsibility for physical education. It is, therefore, just a question of trying to get the different strands in the Department of Education together to deal with physical education.

That Department is not set up on a structure based on subjects. It is set up by various other means that are logical for the administration of the education system. We want to do more but to do it together. We will bring things together through the Department of Education's capital programme and what our Department has to do. The starting point is to look at what is stated in the national sports policy and to get both Departments to work very closely together, which, to be fair, they do. I hope that my appointment will be a renewed impetus to move even further forward and develop this because it is important. It is a very important Government priority to have more and more throughput.