Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I do not want to give the impression that whole teams were training abroad. I was talking about a specific part of a team. It was not because of lack of resources in China that it sent cyclists to train in Switzerland. The reason is that Switzerland is the centre of excellence in terms of training. Currently, we have cyclists involved in specific high level programmes in Europe. Even if we had the best facilities here, it would be pointless having those cyclists here because the competition and gathering of an international cohort working together lifts the standard for all of them. They need to be together to learn from each other and to compete and upgrade their standards. That is not to say we do not need some facilities here. We do, but the best training is a mix of the different aspects. I agree we should capitalise as much as we can on 2012.

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