Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

There is no disputing the correlation between physical activity and better health and we have had all the warning signs that our population is heading in the wrong direction. I feel sorry for the Minister because to talk about a drop-out rate is one thing, but so many children never participate in a sport because there are so few facilities in schools. Even in our constituency many schools have no sports hall. It is no wonder they do not get involved in sport, get no interest in sport and, if they take to a sport, drop out, particularly girls.

From the lottery funding point of view, now that we have many facilities around the country there is an opportunity to be more focused on what facilities are provided in future. Given that the Department of Education and Science has little interest in sport, is there a case to be made for changing the guidelines to ensure facilities provided are placed near schools so that if a school has no sports ground, children have access to them? Few grants of the capital lottery money go to public, State schools. Am I correct?

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