Jimmy Harte (Labour)

I also welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am delighted someone with his background and passion is in charge of sport because it is a huge issue in Ireland; it is part of our culture and every boy or girl wants to grow up to be a good footballer or a film star. Sport is like show business, the player is competing at the top level.

Those who want to jog five miles or play five-a-side football, however, are the people who keep sport going, along with the volunteers. Without children kicking a ball around or joining a swimming club in the community, sport would die. Investment in sport cannot be underestimated from both the health point of view and its importance to the community. The GAA has built up communities in areas that would otherwise die. In my own area Glenswilly GAA won its first county championship on Sunday after 29 years. I attended the first meeting of the club when it formed. It was a rural club and anyone driving through would only see a few houses but the team managed to win the county championship with players like Michael Murphy and Neil Gallagher who define the community they come from.

We have a big weekend ahead of us. I am going to Barcelona without a ticket to the Andorra game but I will be in the company of 3,000 to 4,000 others who will be in Barcelona for the weekend and then back on Tuesday for the Armenia game. Hopefully we can qualify directly for the European Championships in Ukraine and Poland. In the meantime, the Irish rugby team play at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning. There will be many brave souls going to bed after watching it or getting up to watch it. I am looking forward to a weekend of great sport and I hope it will be a successful weekend for Irish sport. As the Minister of State said, it lifts the country and individuals and gets people talking, not about how badly things are going but how great the country is and how the future in sport can benefit communities and the economy.

The European Court of Justice has ruled on the challenge by a pub landlady to the monopoly operated by Sky Sports. It is like a Bosman ruling for fans. Fans can now purchase their subscriptions in any country throughout Europe. This is a massive leap forward. The amount of money Sky Sports charge ordinary sports fans to watch a football match has turned sport into too much of a commercial entity. Gone are the days when Nottingham Forest, with Brian Clough as manager, picked up players around England and won the European Cup twice. Manchester United can now spend a billion, and much of that is Sky Sports money. However, the clubs at the bottom, such as Darlington and Portsmouth which are going out of business, have fed the leading clubs over many years. Those clubs are suffering. In the British Premiership, football has come to a level where a guy being paid £250,000 a week does not want to get off the bench. Taking Sky Sports out of the equation will help sport, although one begrudges players a good wage.

I welcome today's ruling in Europe. It brings Sky Sports back into the sitting room, and maybe the bedroom also. Many people will now be able to watch Sky Sports without having to look into their wallet every week. I am sure the Minister of State welcomes the ruling, as all sports fans do.