John O'Mahony (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join colleagues on all sides of the House in offering my deepest sympathy to the family of the late former Deputy Peter Mathews, with whom I worked very closely as a colleague from 2007 to 2011 when he had an office next door to mine. The best way to describe him is that he was fiercely determined, but he was also a decent person. He was somebody who would argue about an issue, but he would never hold personal grudges. I offer my deepest sympathy to all of his family.

As a person who has been involved in sport all my life, I note that today the Irish Amateur Boxing Association high performance unit has lost another person as Eddie Bolger is taking up a post in Germany. A few weeks ago the head of the Irish rowing high performance unit resigned. I note that neither of the resignations took place on bad terms. I am concerned in the sense that we had our best performance in winning medals in rowing at the Olympic Games.Everybody knows that sport has the ability to lift the nation and we can think of the O'Donovan brothers and all the boxers over the years. I note with concern the fact that the people who organise and train our teams are being allowed to go abroad, even though it is a great tribute to them. It is important to keep them at home if it all possible.