Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

In so far as the Taoiseach has a political philosophy on anything, is seen to believe in anything and is seen to have a passion for anything, it seems to be sport related. The Taoiseach has been central to the debates and arguments on Abbotstown. I suppose, to be fair to the Taoiseach, he had a vision for Abbotstown. Thanks to the then Attorney General, now Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, he had to compromise on the original vision. What was developed in Abbotstown in terms of the National Aquatic Centre has turned into a fairly squalid tale the reasons for which need more explanation in this House.This Bill raises more questions than it seeks to answer. It has been on the Government's legislative programme for the past two years, indicating that the Government gave this Bill some priority.

Why was there such a delay in introducing it? Yesterday's event might provide one explanation. This Bill is not overly complicated or particularly long and does not contain any extraordinary structures or end goals. I suspect one of the reasons its introduction was so delayed was the matters pertaining in the High Court, decisions that might have been made outside of this House and the suspect clause in it that gives retrospection in decision making powers of Members of the Government on Abbotstown, which is a matter we on the Opposition benches have every right to view with suspicion. The Minister should explain why such a clause is deemed necessary and why there has been such little glee about the Bill.

Ireland is seen as a sporting nation. However, the indicators in terms of the educational standards and health standards signal something different. The failure of successive governments to properly link a national sports policy with the education system has led to the health indicators of our young people, in particular, going ever downwards. This nation has a growing problem with obesity, particularly childhood obesity and related factors that spring from those bad health indicators, particularly an unacceptably large growth in the numbers of people suffering from type two diabetes. A government that sees these indicators and fails to put in place preventative and supportive measures has questions to answer on a national sports policy.

It has often been said that this is too small a country to compare with the more successful sporting nations but any analysis of countries that are successful in international sports would indicate that it is not necessarily a question of the wealth of the country or even the degree of investment. First, there is a national culture in terms of encouraging participation in sports. I will use the opportunity of this debate to point to two examples of different types of countries seen to be internationally successful in many sporting endeavours. The first, Australia, has a population of no more than 25 million people. It hosted the Olympic Games in 2000 in Sydney. It is very successful in swimming, athletics and team sports. It has taken a long time to get a successful international soccer team together but at least it will participate in the World Cup this year, while we will not. Australia has an active national sports programme based on a national sports training centre, which is one of the visions for this Bill. However, the national sports centre in Australia is linked, not to the largest centre of population nor even to its administrative capital, but to an out of the way, but still convenient location for athletes to develop their skills away from the hubbub of everyday life in an environment where they can reach their greatest potential as athletes.

The other example I would point to is Cuba. Although still a communist state, this island country with a population of no more than 9 million people successfully competes in international sports. It is a country with a very low standard of living whose per capita income is one of the lowest in the world due to the economic blockade from its near neighbour, the United States. A comparative study of Sydney Olympic Games results done on the basis of the GNP per capita and population levels in Cuba showed that the Cuban equivalent of the level of achievement of the United States — which is usually seen as the most successful sporting nation and usually gets in the region of 200 medals between gold, silver and bronze — would be 3,000 medals. Whereas Cuba has a low economic standard it has policy initiatives encouraging participation in sports and in breeding excellence.

We have heard talk in this debate already of the phenomenal achievement of a constituent of mine, Ms Derval O'Rourke, in winning a sprint event. That was a very real achievement. Athletics Ireland has a proud record in middle distance running among both men and women, but we have never really achieved in the area of sprints and hurdles. We had a hurdler in the 1928 and 1932 Olympiads who won two gold medals, Mr. Bob Tisdell, but he lived and did most of his training outside of the country. Ms O'Rourke is the first example of someone born and trained in Ireland winning an international competition, and yet her most recent experience of State support and intervention was contact with the Irish Sports Council which saw her subvention as an athlete cut in half prior to her participation in the World Indoor Championships. That is the mixed message we are sending to athletes, people of ability in this country.

The Government has a sports policy that puts an obscene amount of emphasis on horses and dogs before emphasis is put on people. Some 37% of the budget the Minister has at his disposal is spent, not on people in general or on athletes, but on horses and greyhounds. It is difficult to find any other developed country that would determine such a ratio for its sports budget. The Minister might argue that he has overseen an increasing sports budget and the Taoiseach may argue that the Abbotstown sports complex, as it might develop, is an attempt to redress that balance.

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