John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Dr. May and all her colleagues. This is an area that interests me because I see its real benefits for people in terms of mental health. We know the struggles that young people have with their mental health. A different report showed that one in five young people struggle with their mental health. I see sport as key. It is not a panacea but it certainly helps young people. I agree with what was said about this being an exciting time for us as regards sport. Boxing, rugby and so on were mentioned. When we see what is going on in athletics, with records being broken left, right and centre, it is an exciting time. We also see how popular running has become. There are now park runs right across the State, where ordinary people are out every Saturday participating in them. The Dublin marathon has become so popular it is nearly as difficult to get a place in it as it is to win the lottery. It is up there with all the major marathons around the world as regards people looking to participate in it.

It is also an exciting time in boxing. I will unashamedly name one of my cousins, Adam Sinnott, who recently won a senior boxing title to add to his Leinster title. It is certainly a very exciting time there. Another constituent of mine, Daina Moorehouse, has been selected to represent Ireland in the European Games, which is seen as a key Olympic qualifier. These are very exciting times. However, there are challenges in all of that. I look at Katie Taylor, her phenomenal career, and the failures at different levels to put the structures in place for communities and clubs such as her's before she won an Olympic gold medal. When she was a world champion, she was still training in the kitchen in her home. It was only when she won an Olympic gold medal in London that Departments started to put funding and facilities in place for Katie and Bray Boxing Club. There are still challenges. Only this week, in Bray, County Wicklow, another boxing club unfortunately had to close its doors on a temporary basis because of a lack of facilities for boxers. Hopefully, things have moved on and that is being addressed. However, there are still key challenges and I will touch on them.

The sports partnerships, which do phenomenal work in counties the length and breadth of the State, were mentioned. I want to talk about that interconnection between local authorities and Sport Ireland. Up until quite recently, the approach taken by local authorities was to put a football pitch in place and that was seen as supplying all the sporting facilities needed. The local authorities do not look at minority sports. Will the representatives touch on the interconnection between Sport Ireland in the first instance, in addition to local authorities and sports partnerships, in the context of identifying the needs, particularly of young people, in counties and putting grassroots facilities in place?