Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I warmly welcome the Minister to the House and I welcome the legislation. In the earlier part of his contribution the Minister rightly reminded us of some of our recent international achievements in various fields. I know the Minister in other contexts would not forget this but I would put an emphasis also on our outstanding racing and international horse breeding industry. As an act of solidarity last Saturday, a number of Oireachtas Members from all parties went to the races at Down Royal, which have been cancelled from time to time because of dissident threats, but looking at the jockeys getting up on the horses, obesity is the least of their problems.

Tremendous progress has been made over the past 25 years in the area of State promotion of sport. In 1981, the then Minister of State, Jim Tunney, got a few hundred thousand pounds to provide seed money for sports clubs throughout the country. That was considered a significant political achievement at the time and it was carried on by successive Governments.

The sports capital programme is one of the most successful and appreciated Government programmes. I would like to thank the Minister personally for all he has put into it. His period as Minister for this area will be looked back on as one when sport had champions in Government.