Mr. David Duffy:

I thank the members for their insightful questions. I want to make two main points. On the idea of boys being fitter than girls or more interested in certain sports, a good deal of research indicates that boys, particularly teenage boys, are more interested in contact sports than girls. What is interesting in the survey that is happening now, as I am sure the members are aware, is that two new specifications for the leaving certificate were finalised recently. One is a non-examination framework for students who have been doing PE and the other is an examination subject of PE. What is particularly interesting in the context of Deputy Mitchell's question is that both allow a good deal of flexibility about the type of sports and physical activities that are done as part of those specifications. It is possible then for schools to be able to tailor what they do to the interests of the students concerned within the context of the facilities that are available to the school. For example, if it was a single sex school, it could be tailored to the interests of the students concerned, within reason.

In terms of the flip side to PE, I agree with Deputy Neville that there are issues around the interaction. If I may digress briefly, Professor Emer Smyth tells a very good story of when she was doing some research into how students found the curriculum. She was interviewing some students who were studying home economics, which in the context of obesity is a serious and important matter. She asked a group of examination students what they were doing in home economics and they told her they were studying how to make mayonnaise but they asked why they needed to know how to make mayonnaise because it is not-----