Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

All Members will be aware of such problems within their local communities. Given the resources that have been provided through my Department and others in recent years, there is no doubt that the facilities available have been increased and enhanced enormously in recent years, and they should be maximised. There is nothing worse than seeing facilities being used a couple of times a week and remaining empty for the weekend, when others would like to use them. That is one of the issues we want to see resolved. We should like to see closer co-operation and co-ordination between local communities, schools and indeed local clubs to get better value in terms of usage from the facilities. We are trying to achieve this and it is one of the things I am examining.

Until one gets fully into the job, one does not always realise what is going on. I was at a number of venues throughout the country with the local sports partnerships, run either by the FAI or other organisations. The work they are doing, particularly with disadvantaged children, is remarkable. Having an iconic figure such as Packie Bonner involved in that programme and visiting schools has an enormous impact on children in terms of their desire to participate in some of these programmes. Where disadvantage and the number of young girls, in particular, participating in sport, is lower than we like to see, some really good programmes are being run in co-ordination with the Irish Sports Council and some of the national governing bodies. On the capital side, we clearly would like to see and will try to continue to get, more synergy between education, in its purest form, and sports, in terms of the use and maximisation of facilities.

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