Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

I call on the Leader to organise a debate on people with disabilities being active, particularly in sport. We have a very proud tradition in this country and a very proud Special Olympics team which does fantastic work in representing us abroad. Equally, our Paralympians do fantastic work representing us abroad and have had many achievements for which I commend them. There are thousands of people with disabilities who do not fall into either category, however. They deserve support to be active. I commend the various sports governing bodies that have programmes that enable people with physical disabilities to be active within their sports.I commend Active Disability Ireland on the work it does with the various Government bodies to promote active physical activity for people with disabilities. However, much more can be done. A number of years ago I pointed out that part of the criteria for the sports capital grant funding should be a declaration and an explanation as to how the facilities are encouraging and promoting people with disabilities and creating access for people with disabilities to their facilities. I am not sure that has happened to the degree that one would have hoped. Therefore we need to do a stress test on the sports capital grants programme to see what more can be done in a positive way to make sure that the over 10% of our population with a disability can be as active as they physically should be and that State is providing support to them in the same way as it is providing support to other people involved in sport. It would be very welcome to have an overall debate with the Minister for sport on what is being done to make sport accessible.