Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

I apologise for the absence of my colleague Senator Feighan who cannot be here for the start of the debate. Fine Gael welcomes the establishment of the national sports campus development authority on a statutory basis. It is appropriate that Ireland has such a facility, given our great love of sport.

A day or two after the 2002 general election, which was not a good one for Fine Gael, people got on with life as normal. It was forgotten that an election had been held. Two weeks later, the Roy Keane saga unfolded in Saipan and the country came to a standstill. I realised the difference between what one may think is important and what is important. I also realised that Irish people are fanatical about sport when I saw people stop work to hear hourly radio bulletins about the story. The entire country watched Tommy Gorman's interview with Roy Keane to find out what was happening. The country is obviously suffering now because it is not taking part in this World Cup. There would be a great atmosphere if it were.

There is an onus on us to provide facilities to encourage maximum participation in sports both at amateur level and at top class events such as the World Cup, Ryder Cup, Tours de France and the Olympic Games, including the Winter Olympic Games. We must provide the facilities that will allow people who have an ability in sport to perform better and excel. Unfortunately, our record in the Olympics is not what it should be. We must improve on it and, hopefully, the new sports campus in Abbotstown will allow top-class athletes to develop their skills and yield the dividend of improved performance and gold medals. Hopefully, too, the Minister or his successors will be out at Dublin Airport welcoming home gold medal winners in years to come. That would bring the country great joy and hope.

However, hard questions must be asked about the National Aquatic Centre. Fine Gael believes that the first job this new authority should do is conduct an audit of the National Aquatic Centre and find out how much damage has been done. I was in Dubai lately and visited an indoor ski resort. This is something that should be considered for Abbotstown. If the Minister is in Dubai in the near future, he should visit this resort. Hundreds of thousands of Irish people go skiing each year. Dubai has shown how skiing facilities can be provided and hopes to compete in the Winter Olympics; this is a country where the usual outdoor temperature is 42°C. This is something we should consider. We should encourage maximum participation in sport at every level.

There are major problems at present at the National Aquatic Centre. The Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, will be aware of that given that it is in his constituency. A few months ago part of the roof of the centre was blown off. A report on the incident, by Kavanagh, Mansfield and Partners, consulting engineers, found that the damage to the competition hall was caused by the failure of elements within the roof assembly and that the failure could have occurred at wind speeds within normal design parameters for a building of this size and location. Exceptional storm conditions need not have been present for this damage to occur, although I understand it did occur during a storm.