Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the extensive rundown the Minister of State has given of the contributions and the commitment that the Government has made to sport. I welcome that and acknowledge it.

I am particularly grateful for what the Minister of State said in relation to the issue I raised and I am happy to engage with him after this debate. I do not want to name any organisations on the record but it is important that we recognise that many national sporting bodies have a huge amount of work to do to marry their commitment to mainstream sports with their commitment to para-sports. The Minister of State mentioned Special Olympics Ireland as well. There are many sporting bodies involved in this stream of sporting activity. Within some of them, sometimes there is a disconnect between their publicly stated commitment to para-sports, and the commitment they give to applications, qualification criteria and helping paralympians, potential paralympians or para-sports people to meet those criteria, whatever the qualification criteria might be. I very much welcome what the Minister of State has said and I am happy to engage with him.

I also welcome what the Minister of State said about there not being a lack of funding. I wonder if, in that regard, we could help Paralympics Ireland to put in place a person whose job is to specifically target the qualification process for paralympians.