Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for bringing this Bill before the House. The importance of sports to Irish life cannot be underestimated. We see the role that sports play in every rural town, village and school in this country. The Bill will provide for the administration of sports in this State by establishing the Sport Ireland body through the dissolution and merger of the Irish Sports Council and the National Sports Campus Development Authority. It also makes enhanced provision to prevent doping in Irish sports. The establishment of Sport Ireland will result in the more efficient development of sports and the implementation of sports policy by bringing responsibility for sporting matters under one agency.