Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Nobody in this House doubts the importance of sport, especially of non-professional sport as it benefits households and individuals throughout the country. I also acknowledge the funding the Government has put at the disposal of sports clubs, be they GAA, other team sports such as rugby or soccer, or tennis, through pitches, facilities and so on. That is tremendously important because it builds communities and facilities for local communities and individuals. I also acknowledge how much of that funding comes from the good causes fund and moneys raised through the sale of national lottery tickets.

The main point of this Commencement matter is to talk about targeted funding. In acknowledging the amount of funding that is made available to voluntary organisations and sports clubs around the country, I would also like the Government to look at targeting that funding in a way that gets the biggest bang for the buck, as it were. The Minister of State will note I refer to para-sports, particularly the provision of sporting facilities for people either with physical disabilities or who cannot compete either in the way they might have been able to in the past before an accident or something like that or from birth. I say that as somebody who grew up a stone's throw from the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Rochestown Avenue in Dún Laoghaire. A particular number of people go through that hospital and we see the devastating injuries some of them have suffered as a result of accidents. Also in Dún Laoghaire, Sailing Ireland has a fantastic facility through an organisation it supports called Sailability Ireland, which provides sailing facilities for people with disabilities in Dún Laoghaire and throughout the country. These are just two examples.

We are 489 days away from the Paralympic Games in Paris in August 2024. Unfortunately, para-sailing has been taken out of the Paralympic spectrum. I hope Ireland will support the reintroduction of para-sailing. We rely on Paralympics Ireland to help organisations and sporting bodies to get their people together and facilitate their entry into the Paralympics. That is welcome. They support 21 national sporting bodies in that regard. However, there is a massive difference between one body and the other in terms of how they properly encourage people who partake in their particular sport, whatever that might be.

In the context of the funding that has been provided for non-professional sports, is there room for targeted funding for those involved in Paralympics? We have seen other countries, including our nearest neighbour, targeting funding into those sports and towards success in particular areas. Success is not the main aim of any Paralympic or Olympic Games, participation is. Getting people to qualify to be in the games is very important. Some of those 21 national sporting bodies that are supported by Paralympics Ireland are not providing the guidance and support for some of their sportspeople. I am wondering if there is room in the funding scheme put forward by the Department to give dedicated expertise to them in helping ensure Irish para-sportspeople qualify in their discipline. Sometimes it is a lack of expertise and sometimes it is a lack of will within sporting organisations, being perfectly honest, but it must never be a lack of funding.I am hoping that the Department will commit to increasing the funding generally for sports, but specifically for para-sports, in Ireland. As part of that, I hope it will include a stream that will allow sporting organisations throughout this country to target qualification for the Paralympics - realistically, at this stage, the Los Angeles games in 2028 - on an ongoing basis so that we can see increasing numbers of Irish people competing at the highest possible level and, hopefully, winning medals.