Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

The Minister referred to the obesity taskforce. My understanding is that many of the sections of its report are gathering dust and little progress has been made. It is very important that the Department with a responsibility for sport has an input and that there is interaction with the Department of Health and Children. What is the role of the Department of Education and Science in terms of interaction? There is a need for considerably more joined-up thinking. A delegation appeared before a committee yesterday from the Federation of Irish Sport. One of the points it made was that a cross-departmental interaction is required, especially including education.

There is a significant drop-out rate among young people playing sport in the 15 years to 19 years age group. That is an age when one hopes young people are retained within sporting activities but, unfortunately, for a variety of reasons they seem to drop out. The encouragement does not seem to be there. What we are trying to do is to lay down the framework for healthy lifestyles.

To return to the debate we had last night on primary schools, there is a lack of adequate PE facilities in many schools. Again, what we are trying to do there is put down the building blocks and give young children an opportunity. If we do not do that at a very early age then we cannot expect that they will be able to maintain an interest in sport because they will never have had that opportunity. I would like to hear the Minister's comments on the role of primary schools in regard to sport and health and the factors that influence the drop out of teenagers, especially between the ages of 15 years and 19 years according to the reports.

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