John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

I appreciate Deputy Wall's intervention and recognise the important opportunities provided for Ireland as a result of the London Olympics 2012. We have to plan ahead. The agency will be established as soon as possible this year and will have the role of making the necessary contacts with a view to maximising the opportunities for Ireland. We should state our strengths. There has been considerable interest in the university in Limerick because of its facilities, including a fine swimming pool. There is also the National Aquatic Centre in Abbotstown. There are other sports we should target. Those that come to mind are rowing — we have a fine national rowing centre at Inniscarra — boxing and equestrian sports.

The first phase of Abbotstown should provide further facilities which will attract visiting teams. The new indoor arena which will be constructed in Abbotstown by the end of 2010 will provide for 30 minority sports so that I envisage us having facilities for groups interested. We have a range of facilities across the country that we did not have heretofore. Therefore, I anticipate a great degree of interest by visiting Olympic teams from across the globe. I am not saying they will all want to come here but some will. The University of Limerick has had inquiries. It is important to avail of the opportunity from a tourism perspective. That is why Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland will be involved in ensuring we maximise the amount of tourism revenue we can obtain from foreign sources as a result of people attending the games. In this context the continued strengthening of access to and from Britain by air is of immense importance. I sincerely hope this continues and I believe it will.

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