Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he received a copy of the Being Young and Irish – Take Charge of Change report from the Office of the President, Áras an Uachtaráin as part of President Higgins series of seminars with young persons here which took place in Dublin, Galway, Monaghan and Cork in 2012; if he has noted the Take Charge of Change declaration made by the participants; the steps he has taken arising out of the report’s findings in order to achieve young person’s vision for Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14537/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Report provides a valuable insight into the views and thoughts of the young people involved in the process.

The Report ranges over the full set of Government activities, but comments in two areas were of particular relevance to my Department.  The Report notes the feeling of pride which sporting achievement at a national or community level can engender. I am very mindful of the benefits which sport can bring both for the individuals who participate and for society as a whole in terms of the positive feelings which they can stimulate. It is for this reason that the Government has sought to protect, to the greatest possible extent, public funding for sports at this time of limitations on resources available to the Exchequer. For example, in recent months a scheme of sports capital grants, the first since 2008, provided funding to sporting organisations and clubs to develop their facilities, particularly in disadvantaged areas.  Hopefully from these facilities will come the next set of champions to fill communities and the country as a whole with a renewed sense of pride.

I also note the call in the Report for reform of the education system in which I know my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, is engaged.  One aspect of these reforms in which I have a particular interest and on which I have been working with the Minister for Education and Skills is the introduction of sport as an examinable subject as part of the revised junior certificate cycle and I look forward to progress in this regard in the coming months.