Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. As others have said, it is a Ministry for which he is very well suited and for which he has huge passion, energy and enthusiasm. He gets this portfolio and is doing a great job. Perhaps I am biased but I think we would all agree on that. The Government has shown a great commitment to investment in sport even under the severe financial constraints we were under during the past number of years. It is fair to say that the investment has seen a return, be it in the form of sports capital grants, as have been mentioned by many Senators, or efforts to attract international events and tournaments. It is fair to say that Fine Gael and the Labour Party in government have a great track record. As other Senators have mentioned, we seem to really punch above our weight in the area of sport, which is a very fitting pun considering Katie Taylor's success yesterday, not to mention golf, rugby and the GAA.

If we look to our work in attracting international events, we see an unparalleled track record of success to date with American football games becoming a regular fixture, the UEFA Europa League final, the upcoming games we will host during the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, the Volvo Ocean Race, golfing tournaments and our bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup. I was delighted with the success of the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship bid in particular, which will see four matches being played in Ireland, and will see a benefit of somewhere between €50 million and €100 million coming to Dublin and, hopefully, the entire country. Small and savvy investments in these bidding processes have proven to be an absolutely worthwhile investment – coming at a small percentage of the €6 million in consultancy fees that were spent on the ill-fated "Bertie Bowl" some years ago.

We can have no doubt that sport is important to this Government. On the investment side, we have managed to continue the sports capital grant process regularly throughout this term with our third round of sports capital grants now coming up in a few months time. The Minister of State puts a significant amount of work into this.

With €31 million allocated in 2012 and €40 million allocated in 2014, we have seen a great investment in grassroots participation in sport up and down the country. I believe that this is something which is paying off huge dividends in terms of the development of a number of sports at grassroots level. As such, I am glad to see further sports capital funding coming down the tracks in 2015.

Some will try to raise the issue of so-called cronyism when it comes to these grants, as no doubt the Opposition will attempt to do, but then it must consider the case of Dublin North West. This is the only constituency in the country where Fine Gael had no parliamentary party member for the last two rounds of sports grants funding yet it received in excess of €2 million and had a number of successful bids. These sports capital grants are distributed on merit.

This motion also includes the important provision of saluting the volunteers. Senator Kelly and other Senators mentioned the work of those who organise sporting activities across the country in a huge variety of different sports, which can be thankless in so many organisations. I believe that this is only right and proper. If these people charged for what they do, the reality is that our sports capital grants would have to be possibly 20 times the size of what they are now. It is only thanks to the dedication, commitment and passion of individual volunteers that sports clubs in this country - whether they are in rowing, boxing, GAA or any number of other things – are kept going.

The next issue might be a bit off the beaten track but given that it is an issue I raise regularly, I believe it is important to raise it here. Sport and physical activity are potentially the most effective tools we have in the fight against childhood obesity. One in four Irish children are now overweight or obese according to research and this is a problem which is not going away anytime soon. We need to use the tools of policy creation at our disposal to encourage sport wherever possible and this is not helped when one sees the statistics. Last year the EU information network found that Irish primary schools offered less physical education hours than any other EU member state. On top of this, many schools have banned running in the yard at break time, which is further curtailing children's opportunity to exercise. While I understand individual school management authorities must have a safety statement in place in their schools, there are no general directives to ban running in the school yard yet it seems to be happening in an increasing number of schools. Indeed, according to the National Parents Council, many parents, while understanding safety and insurance concerns, feel that banning running in the school yard should be the last possible resort. I would be interested in hearing the Minister of State's views on that or whether it is on his radar. The idea of staggering break times should be considered as an alternative – with less congestion on playgrounds and, therefore, less likelihood of accidents. Indeed, it could even be an opportunity to have more "formalised" lunch time activities with more of an exercise element to them.

Ultimately, I am very happy to contribute on this topic and I am glad to see this motion tabled. I believe it is something that is worthy of our thoughts and that it is a field in which the Government has achieved greatly in so far. We have invested in sport, we have invested cleverly and now we need to use sport to ensure we meet the public health challenges in the future. Senator Kelly mentioned Mayo and certain people playing for Mayo. I am getting confused as to whether he is representing Mayo or Roscommon. He mentioned the Pakistani player who has now started to play for Mayo. Perhaps we need an influx of international players down in Mayo. Something of an extension of the gene pool might not do any harm because it might take us out of the bind in which we find ourselves where we do not reach the success we have sought for so many years down in Mayo. I commend the motion to the House.