Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join with the Cathaoirleach and Senator Byrne in wishing Seán Defoe a good and happy future life. He has had a difficult time. I heard part of his interview yesterday. We all know Seán very well around here so we certainly wish him well.

I am sure the Acting Leader will join with me in also welcoming the fact that yesterday, we had a Government announcement of €250 million in sports capital funding. While I know clubs will not be made aware of their actual financial allocations for a number of weeks, it is a significant commitment by Government to the sport and community sector all over Ireland. We cannot talk enough about this and how important it is to communities, whether urban or rural. We all look forward to the many clubs, sports clubs and schools who have decided to do new things with sport getting that funding now. As I said, the figures will not become available to the clubs for some time to come.

Finally, and very quickly in the few seconds I have left, I want to mention a report I was reading this morning from the business editor of RTÉ, Will Goodbody, with regard to the amount of fraud and scams last year. Almost €100 million was stolen by fraudsters in this country. That is a big increase of 16% on the previous year, and it continues to be a massive problem. While we can all accept that card payments - from a security perspective and for the safety of people - are good because cash floating around can lead to armed robberies and that type of thing, there is an awful lot of distress that can happen to people as well when money is taken out of their accounts and their direct debits are refused. It brings a lot of stress onto people and it is a growing problem. I know the Government is working on this but maybe, at some stage when the elections are over, the Minister for Justice might come in and we might have a discussion about this matter. It is a growing problem and it is going to get worse unless we bring even more stringent rules into place.