Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State's response. I note the contents of the report. As the Minister of State said, only 43% of adults actively participate in sport. How can we increase this percentage? It is important. Almost 60% are still not participating in sports or activities for the sake of fitness. Do we need to give more hours to physical education for our children in our schools? The Minister of State opened a conference last week in Trinity College Dublin with the Sports Federation of Ireland. We are trying to put ourselves on the same level as New Zealand. It has the same population and the same approach to sports but we do not win the same number of medals. One of the things brought home to us during that deliberation was that schoolchildren in New Zealand get three hours a week of physical education while here there is a maximum of two hours. I do not know if the schools are actually doing the two hours. I am concerned. Could we do more and make it statutory that a number of hours are given to physical education?

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