John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I was unable to get a ticket for the match. If the Minister has a spare ticket, he might send it in my direction. It is appropriate that the Minister with responsibility for sport should attend the match on this important night for Irish sport.

The motion proposed by the Government Senators this evening is typical of the motions they have tabled during Private Members' time since I was elected to the House. A number of contradictions can be found in the motion, as is usually the case. The most glaring and obvious contradiction is in the second paragraph of the motion, in which the Government Senators congratulate the Government "on the substantial increase in the annual sports budget to €130 million in 2005". The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, said last week that the €150 million spent on the PPARS computer system was nothing, not even a drop in the ocean. If €150 million is nothing, surely the same can be said of the €130 million that is being spent on sport this year.

I agree with those who have said that much more than €130 million needs to be spent on sport each year. I do not disagree with the comments of other Senators who highlighted the value of sport in the Irish context. Irish people have always been attracted to, interested in and involved in sport, for some reason. The GAA, for example, is probably the most fantastic amateur organisation of any sort anywhere in the world. I do not think one will find a better amateur sporting organisation anywhere. I say that as a playing member of the GAA. I am sure Members will be delighted to learn that I won a divisional junior B hurling medal earlier this year with my home club, Tullogher-Rosbercon.