Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I agree with the Deputy wholeheartedly. Team sports are at the core of what sport is about, particularly for younger people. Participation in team sports teaches our children so much in terms of their ability to cope with success, defeat and disappointments, their social skills and ability to interact with their friends, and their understanding of leadership and playing one's part. There is a range of benefits to participation in team sports. The challenge we all face — this is evident in some of our more traditional sports — is that in today's world the drop-off in team participation rates after the age of 16 or 18 years is significant. There is a big challenge in keeping young people of that age involved in team sports.

The other aspect of individual participation in adulthood is that it includes a lot of general physical activities such as aerobics. I am not saying these are not sports, but I am not saying they are either. The report refers to physical activity that keeps people mentally and physically well just by being involved. We cannot start building individual facilities all over the place. There is a need in some sports to provide basic training, for skills development or coaching. As a nation there are areas in which we could do a lot better. Irish people were very successful in many field sports around the turn of the last century when we participated in the Olympic Games, although not under our own flag. If one looks at the names of those who delivered medals for the United Kingdom and the United States at the time, they are nearly all Irish. This tells me there is nothing inherently wrong with the physical, mental or cultural make-up of Irish people that means we cannot be as good as any other country in field sports. In this area we do need to provide facilities. Overall, I am a strong believer in team sport.

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