Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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On my own behalf, I thank Mr. Regan for his presentation. No doubt the GAA provides an extraordinary service to the State and has done for generations. This particular venture for the GAA, in terms of healthy eating promotion, is to be welcomed and appreciated. The GAA is in every corner of every county. It has two clubs in some towns. It is fantastic to see such a big organisation take such a lead on it and it is important. There are many other sporting codes that do the same but it should be noted that no other sporting code has the reach that the GAA has.

I will focus on three themes. The first, which is the most important one - because one can have all the Cúl camps in the world but if one does not promote participation, and the sustenance of that participation, we have a problem, and it is the problem that we are facing in this country in terms of obesity rates - is, of course, participation. Our opening speaker, Deputy Rabbitte, touched upon it but it is important to dwell on it for a moment. As somebody who was very good at one particular code and dreadful at most others, I was a willing participant in all sports. On that drop-off in participation, because of the exclusion of individuals, and the competitive nature of sporting organisations, I can speak to one section of my community in Dublin Fingal where there are two other sporting organisations that grew as a result of the exclusion of hundreds of people because of that one organisation - it does not matter what code it is or where it is. The point is there are two other clubs that now have hundreds of members because of this competitive nature and it started at under 12s. That is wrong.

Senator Richmond made a point yesterday which was covered in the media - I am sure other members have made points about it in the past - that there should be encouragement for children to participate up to a particular age where there should not be competition involved. When I say there should not be competition, they should be given a run at every game or every second game. It is not good enough for a sporting organisation to exclude a child who shows up week in, week out, trains just as hard as everybody else but maybe just does not have that talent or for it, for instance, to encourage him or her to participate in a team that might play once a month. I would be interested to hear Mr. Regan's view on that matter. I am not targeting the GAA at all. It happens right across the spectrum of sporting codes. I would be interested to hear his view.