Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a cross-departmental aspect to all this, notwithstanding the extraordinarily generous grants administered by the Minister of State's Department in the form of the sports capital programme and the impact that that can have on communities up and down the country. We know, and the Minister of State, being from a very fast-growing young community just like mine, will know too, that the facilities that are provided to young people, particularly young girls, for participation in sport are incredibly important. There is a role for the Department of Education to play in rolling out further improvements to the physical activity, PE, facilities in schools up and down the country. There was a report a couple of years ago. I cannot remember the precise figure but it was stark as to the number of schools that did not have PE halls and those sorts of activation measures, if we want to call them that. That is what they are because if the facilities are there, they will be used, and that will encourage more people to participate.

I welcome what the Minister of State has told us this morning and look forward to the dedicated campaign he mentioned.

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