Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Senator Mooney made the interesting point that there is only a finite number of young people involved in sport. That is a good point on which to begin a debate. In terms of the public good, public health and so forth, the first priority of a national sports policy ought to be to maximise participation, rather than to maximise achievement.

It was taken for granted when I was of football-playing age that virtually everybody played some sport, mainly because people did not have the money to do anything else. Recently I was told that only 18% of people in the 18 to 25 year age group were involved in an active sport. That percentage is extremely small. This is a huge issue and the first platform of public policy should be to maximise participation. Achievement will result from maximising participation. Obviously, if one puts in place an infrastructure which encourages participation, it will also encourage achievement.

The only criticism I have of establishing the national stadium in Lansdowne Road, and it is a criticism I have voiced on a number of occasions, is that this country seems to have constructed a process of public policy decision making which takes about five times longer than in other European countries. People talk about fast track planning and EIS procedures for infrastructural proposals but the process of decision making that resulted in the recent decision about Lansdowne Road was every bit as slow as the much criticised process of decision making on infrastructure. There appears to be a reluctance either in the public service or in Government, and I am not particularly referring to the present Government, on which my views have been well recorded.