Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I listened with great interest to the debate over the past hour, particularly on those amendments. One would wonder why the Minister of State excludes sporting bodies. There must be a reason. Is it a financial reason because of the amount of money that may flow into sporting bodies if they availed of tax relief? The Minister of State could qualify it. It would be a shame to divide the House on this. It is a very important issue and everybody is at one on those amendments. The Minister of State could qualify the sporting organisations to at least local level. He could name some of the sporting organisations. It might be unfair to name them and perhaps that is the kernel of the problem he faces. There must be some problem, whether with the Department of Finance or another Department. I do not know. However the bases of the points made by the Senators are very good.

The Minister of State could quality this to say the local or lowest level of sporting organisations could avail of charitable status. Some local sporting organisations will come under severe financial difficulties in the next few years and will find it very difficult to survive. Something could be done in this Bill. The Minister of State said the financial area and the finance that could accrue to those sporting organisations from the tax relief is not the perspective from which we should look at it, but that is the perspective from which everybody is looking at it.