Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

The guidelines are woefully inadequate. Does the Minister not know that children are being exploited with the approval of an agency under his remit? He knows of issues I have raised with the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, regarding the morality and sensibility of allowing commercial businesses to peddle their wares in schools, but the Minister's Department has taken it one step further.

I refer to the Irish Sports Council's involvement in the Kids in Action scheme with Supervalu, the logo of which is in the scheme's advertisements. I welcome that since 2004, Supervalu has supported Buntús, a non-commercial scheme, but Kids in Action is different. It is an incentive scheme involving children collecting bundles of €10 vouchers to get equipment. For example, their purchases must amount to almost €4,000 for a Gaelic football worth less than €20, a basketball coaching bag requires €70,000 worth of purchasing and a so-called free indoor hurley needs €3,800 worth of shopping. Unfortunately, this blatant commercialism and cynical use of children and teachers is legal and made more attractive by the lack of real investment in schools' physical education equipment.

Does the Minister agree with the sports council endorsing a commercial scheme overtly? Is it not a morally bankrupt and corrupt practice and what will the Minister do about it?

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