Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I shall stay positive when discussing this important issue. I commend Senator Moran and my Labour Party colleagues for tabling the motion. I welcome Mr. Peter O'Brien from Special Olympics Ireland who is seated in the Visitors Gallery. I also welcome Mr. Cillian Moran whom I met earlier this afternoon. He told me about his important work and about a competition that he will be involved in at the weekend. I look forward to hearing more. I also welcome Mr. James Kelly to the Seanad.

This is a very important motion and I sincerely hope it will receive all-party support.

The year 2003 was a very special one because we hosted the Special Olympics World Games. Who will forget Bono bringing Nelson Mandela on to the stage in Croke Park on that sunny day in 2003? It was one of the proudest moments Ireland has ever had. What I would say to people now that we are looking at a scenario where Special Olympics Ireland may have to reduce services, reduce the number of competitors and so on is to remember how proud we were in 2003 and what was achieved then. People should also remember that sport, and access to sport, for people with all sorts of disabilities is a right and something to which we need to aspire. As a young fellow in County Clare, I remember not being able to participate in sport and feeling excluded but we have come a long way as a country.

Special Olympics Ireland played a critical role in ensuring healthy living and participation among people with disabilities in sport. What has been achieved is remarkable. We are a very inclusive society and that is reflected in the fact that Special Olympics Ireland has 5,500 citizens who are prepared to volunteer on a regular basis to ensure equality of participation, to which we all aspire.

I was recently invited to sit on the board of CARA in the Institute of Technology in Tralee. It is an organisation which promotes physical activity among people with disabilities. It has numerous training programmes for people involved in the hospitality and leisure business. It also provides disability awareness training to coaches involved in different types of sports and it works with governing bodies to ensure best practice is implemented in the area of access to sport for people with disabilities. It is doing phenomenal work to such a degree that it has been awarded the UNESCO chair. It is recognised as a world leader in the whole area of adapted physical activity and in being innovative in what it is trying to achieve.

I have only attended one meeting of the board because I am only a recent appointee but I believe Special Olympics Ireland is also represented on it and that there is significant collaboration between all these people, whether in Special Olympics Ireland or the various governing bodies. That type of collaboration is working phenomenally well.

I attended one of its CampAbilities sessions last Easter. I believe the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, did one of the opening sessions. I did one of the closing sessions and it was wonderful to see dozens of blind and visually impaired young people from secondary schools all over Munster participating in CampAbilities, enjoying it and feeling included. That is progress. I hope we will see CampAbilities in all provinces in the next couple of years. I know it is trying to get sponsors to ensure a CampAbilities in Dublin, the west and the south east.

Much is happening but I respectfully suggest to Government that it needs to become a partner in this process. The volunteers and the structures are there. The Special Olympics Ireland structure is probably one of the best of any sporting organisation. It is extremely professional, which I have found in any dealings I have ever had with it. We need Government to become a fully fledged partner.

I do not want to hear commentary or an analysis that Special Olympics Ireland will have to look at reducing services. I want to hear conversations about increasing services, increasing participation and involving more people. This is an area to which the Government could look at increasing funding because the long-term benefits are obvious. One of our colleagues, Senator Eamonn Coghlan, who is world-renowned in terms of what he has achieved in sport, regularly talks about the significant health benefits to those involved in sport. It reduces obesity and all sorts of illness. Such illnesses are even more prevalent among people with disabilities which is why we need to involve people with disabilities in sport more than other groups in society.

I speak from experience. I would have loved the opportunity, as a young fellow, to have participated in sport but it was not available to me. I want to see availability and accessibility for future generations who have disabilities because it is of critical importance. I commend my Labour Party colleagues on the motion, which I hope gets unanimous sport.