Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to debate a matter of urgent national importance, namely, the increasing levels of obesity and heart disease in Ireland and the related need to improve urgently active participation levels in sport by children and adults through tens of millions of additional investment in facilities. This would save the State money in the medium term, as the Minister for Health and Children will be interested to know, because it would result in lower health care costs and increased productivity. I request this debate particularly in light of the reply of the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism to my parliamentary question of yesterday, in which he stated that 37%, or more than one third, of all sports funding is spent on horses and dogs. I gather the only exercise most people get is walking to the pub or the bookies. This is a scandal and I am gobsmacked.

See this speech in context