Dr. Una May:

There is. I do not know if I am being given a special pass today, but it gives me another opportunity to discuss a project we are proud of. We facilitate the Irish Sports Monitor, which is a general household telephone survey. We survey about 8,500 people per year and ask them about their trends in physical activity. At greater intervals we also carry out a survey into children's physical activity. Both of these surveys are completed for the past year. We intend to publish them in the near future. The Deputy's observation about teenagers is important because this is something we have seen for many years. We are not waiting for this year's figures to tell us there is a significant drop-off. As we look at future demographics in Ireland, our teenage population is going to grow. Young people who are now teenagers will reach a critical age over the course of the coming ten years, which will influence their future participation. We have a golden opportunity now to tackle the issue of teenage drop-out. The Minister's new remit, which includes physical education, allows a new opportunity to reach into the education system. We see differences between types of schools. All-girls secondary schools see a significant drop out rate. Almost all of our primary school children are involved in some sport and physical activity. More than 90% of our children are involved in some activity at primary level. However, in particular when girls go to all-girls secondary school we see a specific drop-off, which is greater than in other areas. We have done a lot of work in the area of teenage drop-out among girls in particular, but a lot of what we found in our research applies across the board to girls and boys. We have identified the barriers and challenges. One of the important areas to mention is that a lot of teenagers have identified the fact that they label themselves as non-sporty because they never fully embraced the opportunities given to them at a younger level. The major team sports were maybe not for them. One of the areas we are keen to develop and grow is the promotion of new and diverse opportunities. It is important to support all of the governing bodies right down to niche sports like archery and tug of war - some of the smaller sports that are not necessarily the mainstream sports offered in schools. It is important that we support, promote and encourage people to recognise the diverse opportunities that are out there.