Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

The project is already flying in Tipperary and I hope it will come to the Senator's part of the country soon.

It is amazing to think back to the days of Jim Tunney 23 years ago, when the first sports programme amounted to a few hundred thousand pounds, and the way it has grown since. Senator Ryan mentioned surprise references in the Minister's speech to cricket clubs, demonstrating that the programme is very pluralist when it comes to need.

I welcome the flagship projects, Croke Park, which is a source of great pride to the GAA, and the Lansdowne Road redevelopment. I differ from some speakers on international games. Visitors like coming to city centres so I was never hugely enthusiastic about bringing them a long way out of the city centre. There is merit in Abbotstown, however, because it will not duplicate Croke Park or Lansdowne Road and can concentrate on the other things a national stadium should provide.

I agree with Senator Ryan in that I get irritated when people lecture the GAA about what it should do, simply because it is so counterproductive and serves only to get people's backs up. Nevertheless, there is a case for cultural cross-fertilisation. It is as much about the GAA playing in Lansdowne Road as it would be about rugby or soccer on a few occasions using the facilities at Croke Park. The GAA has nothing about which to be defensive. It is a highly successful organisation. It is more pronounced in the North than it is here and for very understandable historical and political reasons but I do not like what I would call echoes of a kulturkampf which belong to a different era — a sort of cultural struggle with one outlook and national identity pitched against another. I even heard a colleague in the Seanad refer to garrison games and seeming to mean it with all seriousness. I hope we have got beyond that era. As one GAA county manager said, sports are not rivals of each other. Their main rival is apathy and couch potatoism. They are allies rather than rivals in many ways.

I agree with Senator O'Toole about the need for more sports facilities to be made available to schools and for sport to be more clearly integrated into the school curriculum. They do not necessarily have to be on site; they can be nearby or over the wall. People should share and use the facilities available in an area. Apart from anything else, we constantly hear about the danger of obesity.

There is a relationship between sport and tourism which is reflected in the Minister's responsibilities. We in this country have the advantage of space. Many facilities are available to us at reasonable cost. If one gets involved in sports here, one could get very wet given the climate. However, one can get warm without melting in a sweltering heat.

I agree with Senator Ryan about the Old Head of Kinsale. It is wrong that natural facilities should be closed off primarily for commercial reasons and, perhaps to a degree, for security reasons. There should be a right of access to major landmarks in the State. There should be a national policy preventing, and the planning authorities should not permit, places being completely closed off.

We are coming towards the end of the financial year and Exchequer finances are in exceptionally good order. If there are particularly worthwhile but not too expensive capital projects in the sporting or other areas which do not have ongoing current expenditure implications, the end of the year is a good time to include or accommodate one or two of them without upsetting this year's budget or next year's budget calculations. This is especially the case in view of the capital underspend.