Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The PE curriculum has been designed on the basis that facilities in schools may vary. Many primary schools have a general purpose room and practically all schools have outdoor play areas which are used for teaching different aspects of the PE programme. A similar situation with sports halls and outdoor facilities applies at second level. In addition, many schools use adjacent local facilities, including public parks, playing fields and swimming pools. My Department does not have a comprehensive inventory which would indicate the facilities available to each school.

I assure the Deputy that the Government is committed to promoting strong levels of exercise for our children and young people, both in their community and at school.

The extent and quality of local sports facilities has been improved dramatically in recent years, with more than €450 million invested by the Government since 1998 in over 5,000 projects through the sports capital programme. At the same time, PE, general purpose and outdoor play facilities have been provided for schools all over the country through the school building programme. More than €2.6 billion was provided for school building infrastructure between 2000 and 2006 and a further €4.5 billion is to be invested under the new National Development Plan 2007-2013. New curricula for PE in primary schools and at junior certificate level have also been put in place.

Primary schools received €2,000 each in PE equipment grants last year, at a total cost of €6.5 million. A similar grant of €4,000 per pupil, at an overall cost of approximately €3 million, issued to post-primary schools earlier this year. Since 2000 my Department has provided in excess of €5.5 million in grant-aid to primary schools to facilitate the provision of coaching or mentoring in connection with physical education or to purchase resource materials associated with the provision of physical education. Such materials and equipment would normally have a useful life of several years.

Through an increased focus on exercise in school and in the community, the Government is working to encourage more children and young people to become active. The report, The State of the Nation's Children, which was published by the Minister of State with responsibility for children, found that children in Ireland are doing well on physical activity. They are ranked second across the 32 WHO countries for being physically active for at least four hours per week.

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