John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. My amendment, in effect, puts the belt and braces on the statements made by Senators Conway and O'Mahony when they connected the intent of the motion to Article 30 of the UN convention. It puts it on a stronger basis, so I hope that is enough said about that.

In terms of the context of this motion, we have just ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It also comes a couple of weeks before the budget. I will not labour that point.

Issues of access have been well articulated by Members in respect of sports facilities, participation in sport and so on. I have to say, however, in the spirit of the UN convention, that access also involves being able to get to the place. It is public transport, equipment, mobility and income. It is the issues that Senator Lawlor and other Members mentioned in respect of people from different socio-economic backgrounds, and disabled people are among those who have the least income.

I want to talk about the politics of sport. What have Jack Lynch, Jimmy Deenihan and Dick Spring got in common, apart from the fact that they were Members of these Houses? They were sportsmen. No one should tell me that having a sporting background is not advantageous in politics. I do not say that in a sneaky way but participating in sport, or being involved in cultural activities, can be advantageous. I am making the connection between being active in sport and being able to be part of the civil and public life of a country.

I travel a good deal across Europe in particular and I am convinced that the GAA was one of the most critical factors in ensuring we got our Independence. It was not just about sport, and the objective of the GAA refers to the national identity. It brought with it esprit de corps, fitness, a sense of working for others and a sense of oneself. That is what is needed for people with disabilities. It is vitally important.

In eastern Europe, particularly the post Soviet bloc countries, they could not organise a game of cards. They have a horrendous background in terms of the authoritarian regimes they had but they have no sense of being able to organise events locally in parishes and communities. That is what organisations like the GAA and Conradh na Gaeilge did. Disabled people being involved in sport is also part of what that provides.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Sir Ludwig Guttman, a German born neurologist who managed to get out of Germany at the start of the war, worked in spinal injuries hospitals in the United Kingdom, including Stoke Mandeville Hospital and others which dealt with a huge number of young soldiers' spinal injuries. He revolutionised the rehabilitation of those young men by dragging them out of their beds and getting them into sport. He set up the Stoke Mandeville Games, and they became international games. They mutated into the first Paralympic Games in 1960. "Paralympics" means parallel Olympics. There would be a parallel Olympics with the 1960 Olympic Games, and Rome was the city.

Ireland sent a team to those first games in Rome in 1960. I will mention one member of that team who is still with us, thank God, Oliver Murphy, from Drogheda; he will be known to some Members. He is well into his 80s now. The members of that team got to the games through the support of what was then the Rehabilitation Institute. These were edgy young men and women who wanted to drive, get married, have jobs and participate. They came back from those games in the summer of 1960. In November of that year, 13 of them set up the Irish Wheelchair Association in the pillar room in the Rotunda Hospital. That came out of their sporting experience, getting the edge and that extra "oomph". They had the confidence to set up their own organisation. The Irish Wheelchair Association has a proud history in terms of sport in Ireland.

I should mention my former colleague, the late Martin Naughton. The second anniversary of his death will be in two weeks' time. When he was a young lad he was in the hospital in Baldoyle which had a swimming pool. Martin never got into water. He always managed to get other people into deep water but he never got into it himself. He trained their swimming teams, and he trained some of the young people for the Montreal games in 1976. He was a Spiddal man and very proud of the fact that he never got wet himself yet he trained the swimming teams. We only have to look at where he went after that, and how formative it was for him and for others. There is an important political aspect to sport.

Deputy Lawlor mentioned women. From memory I believe the first two gold medals we brought back from the games in Rome in 1960 were won by a woman, Joan Horan, one for swimming and one for archery.

A number of speakers mentioned Sports Ireland. Senator O'Mahony has looked at the statistics and 27% of adults with disabilities participate in sports compared with 49% of the rest of the population. I refer to motivation, the importance of fitness and spending time with family and friends. Individuals with a disability are significantly more likely to be sedentary and less likely to be highly active than people without a disability, so sport is very important.

Deaf Sports Ireland, Vision Sports Ireland, the Irish Wheelchair Association, Special Olympics Ireland, Paralympics Ireland, Cara, Football for All, archery clubs, Riding for the Disabled, Para Equestrian Ireland, Judo Assist, Cerebral Palsy Sport Ireland and the transplant games all play a huge part also.

I mention the recent appointment of Padraic Moran to the board of Sport Ireland by the Minister, Deputy Ross. Mr. Moran is a paralympian and former world champion in the sport of boccia.

This motion is about sport. It is about political public participation and also what will happen in other areas of public services. I commend Senator Conway and his colleagues for tabling this very positive motion.