Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

He did not come willingly. If we are to get into that argument we could be here for a long time.

The economics of sports has always been self defeating. Despite increasing budgets with which the Minister has had to play around, the proportion of money spent on sports is still far smaller than that spent by other countries, which give sports a better priority and get a better payback from such investment in terms of greater use of the education system and certainly a greater benefit for the health of the nation. There is a lack of joined up thinking and interaction between the Minister and his Cabinet colleagues in this area. The Government does not have a national sports policy. Most of our sporting achievement is down to individual effort and brilliance and often occurs by accident. The reason the Government does not have a sports policy is the lack of interaction and drive at Cabinet level.

As someone who represents the second city, I question the location of a national sports centre in the greater Dublin area. National training centres in other countries are not located in their capital cities. For example, the UK centre is in Birmingham and the same scenario applies in France and Germany. The parcel of land involved solved a number of problems for a few Ministers. First, the former Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, was responsible for the State laboratory, which needed to be modified and brought up to speed. The State was sending specimens abroad for analysis which should have been analysed here. However, the decision could have been taken to redevelop the laboratories at Abbotstown. Instead, it was decided to sell the buildings and move the laboratory to the constituency of Kildare North.

Once that decision was made, the Taoiseach identified Abbotstown as the site for what the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform described at the time as a Ceaucescu-like project. That never got off the ground and the nation was treated to a bizarre minuet between the GAA, the FAI and the IRFU regarding the location of a national stadium. The Croke Park edifice was magnificently redeveloped while the soccer and rugby organisations were left in limbo. Progress has been made on the Lansdowne Road stadium but, because of the planning process, we do not know how that will play out. Even though the Taoiseach's vision for Abbotstown failed, it was still considered to be the site for the prototype national sports training centre. Perhaps the Taoiseach should be encouraged to pursue this if there is no alternative use for the site, even though the greater Dublin area is not necessarily the only or best location for such a facility.

Is there a need to add to the infrastructure of sports organisations by establishing a national sports campus authority? Sports Campus Ireland operates the National Aquatic Centre at Abbotstown. The Irish Sports Council, the Olympic Council of Ireland, which prepares and supports athletes who participate in olympiads and a multitude of sports governing bodies are in place. Where is the coherence? Why add to the confusion? The Minister failed to explain this when introducing the legislation but he will need to do so when he replies to Second Stage.

The Taoiseach stated, in responding to the latest crisis regarding the National Aquatic Centre, that the transfer of its lease to a shelf company with a share capital of €127 was done without the permission or knowledge of the Government but I do not buy that. The organisation that decided to transfer the lease to Swimworld, which, in turn, transferred it to a mysterious person in Limerick who, ultimately, controlled the centre, was established by the Minister and many of its members were appointed at the behest of the Taoiseach. Many of them were and, I presume, continue to be, close to him. Given that relationship, I cannot accept the Taoiseach does not know how current events came to pass regarding the National Aquatic Centre.

The ultimate irony is that the Minister is taking upon himself the right to appoint yet another authority in the suspect way that all such authorities are appointed in the State, which has been the practice of this Government, in particular. When such bodies are appointed, their membership has less to do with experience and interest than knowledge of and involvement in the political parties in Government at the time. I can reference how this has worked to the detriment of the organisations involved throughout the panoply of State agencies. Yesterday, a story broke about the membership of the advisory committee of the Environmental Protection Agency. The Green Party has called for strong reforms of this body. A member of the advisory committee, who was appointed by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, intervened to legitimise the practice of illegal dumping. If that happened in this organisation, I presume it has happened in other State bodies because of the method of appointment of members. People are not scrutinised via an open and transparent process.

The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism awaits a report on the incidents relating to members of Bord na gCon, particularly one man whose background ordinarily would have prevented his appointment to any body, not least an agency representing the State. As long as parties persist in making political appointments to State agencies, people will be appointed for the wrong reasons. They do not add significantly to the work of these bodies and they may damage them.

A commission is needed to take such appointments out of political hands and I have little faith the Government will institute such a change. If other political parties accept that such a need exists, my party would be willing to talk to them about such change. My fear is that the appointments to the national sports campus authority by the Minister and his successors will be made on the basis of political patronage and advantage and that secondary consideration will be given to sports issues and the effective management of the campus.

The legislation seemed innocuous, despite its long gestation. As time has gone by, it has developed more sinister characteristics and we need to spend more time properly analysing and parsing its implications during its passage through the House. If we do not get it right, the sporting future of the State, in which people rightly take pride, will be put at risk because the campus will be treated as a political vision rather than a sporting need or a vehicle to meet the health needs of the citizens of the State and its children, in particular.

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