Tá mé thar a bheith buíoch duit gur thug tú cead dom an cheist seo a phlé sa Teach. Tá sé déanach anois; tuigim go bhfuil lucht na bpáipéirí imithe agus nach bhfuil aon phoiblíocht le fáil. Ach tá mé dóchasach mar gheall ar an cheist a bheith pléite sa Teach seo mar go mb'fhéidir go mbeidh tuiscint níos fearr ag daoine agus go bhfaighidh lucht spóirt cothram na féinne.
I thank you for giving me the opportunity to raise this matter. I appreciate that you and everybody else have had a fairly arduous day and that the matter I intend to discuss is not one which will create any great controversy. I am hoping that in the time available to me and my colleague, the Minister of State, we will confirm that a mistake has been made in the matter of moneys which might have gone to the 60 or so sporting organisations.
For the past decade the State has given token financial recognition to these national sporting organisations for the tremendous work they do. The word "sport" detracts from the importance of that work. For me there is no more important work that can be done. In other countries so much importance is attached to it that all this work is nationalised and colossal amounts of money are provided for it every year so that young and not so young men and women are able to employ their spare time gainfully in physical education.
We are blessed in this country because we are unique in that the promoters and organisers of this vital work operate on a voluntary basis. This is the highest form of patriotism. It could be argued that it is true Christianity because these people look after their neighbours' children. In the GAA and the various organisations catering for soccer, tennis, basketball and swimming we have a corps of people who are prepared to give up their spare time so that others can benefit.
All the Government have been asked to do is to give token financial recognition which does no more than fill in the gap which remains when these good people have applied themselves to raising funds. The State's contribution has been insignificant. Even though the scheme of grants has been operating for the past ten years the total amount involved has not yet reached £0.5 million.
The National Community Games cater for the interests of 500,000 young people all year round and the total grant they received last year was a mere £25,000. This organisation enables young people, North and South, to join together in active pursuit of physical exercise and recreation. This year their grant is to be reduced by 10 per cent and they will receive only £22,000. This is the figure which the Minister for Justice gave as representing the cost of keeping one prisoner in Mountjoy. It is worth pondering on our sense of values. The GAA receive about £35,000 and the organisation catering for soccer receive about £20,000.
Day after day there are men and women all over the country who are prepared to leave their own homes to attend to the needs of their own and their neighbours' children. They thereby participate in excellent community work for which they are the better and they do not expect payment. However, they have become accustomed to national recognition of their good work. We know that money is scarce and that scarcity was heralded by our Government. During my period as Minister of State with responsibility for youth and sport and during the terms of my successors, Deputies GeogheganQuinn and Keating, it was possible to raise these grants by an average of 10 per cent.
In November last year when our Government were preparing the Estimates they provided for an increase of only 1 per cent because of the difficulties at the time. However miserable or inadequate it was, that provision was made. The amount provided last year was £694,000, including the large grant of £200,000 to Cospóir. The proposed increase of 1 per cent would have raised the total amount to £700,000 but it has been reduced instead to £609,000 due to the reduction of 10 per cent imposed by this Government. These 62 organisations catering for athletics, handball, boxing, community games and other sports have suffered as a result.
I do not know whether in your younger days you ever played cards, a Cheann Comhairle. I started playing cards with my late father and my mother, who is alive, and we used to play penny "25". When we had finished, and I had lost, my father, the Lord have mercy on him, would give me a very telling lesson in economics. He would say: "Now, Jim, you have paid out a penny to each of us, that is fourpence, but you must remember you have also lost another fourpence by not winning, so your total loss is eightpence".
It is very wise to ponder that, especially in this case. We have reduced aid to the Community Games who last year got a grant of £25,000 and who this year should have been getting another 10 per cent. We have docked them £2,000, so their total loss is £4,000. If we had given them only 1 per cent that loss would have been reduced and apart from everything else the psychological reaction would not have been as it is because they would not have got what I regard as a kick in the teeth which a 10 per cent reduction, inadvertently, signifies.
The total provision for Youth and Sport was £1.9 million. There was a segregation of Youth from Sport — Youth went to the Department of Labour. They did not suffer because they got more than 1 per cent. The youth organisations are very happy.
I was happy to share a platform with the Minister with responsibility for Youth, Deputy George Birmingham, and I complimented him because he was able to get this increase. I did not know then that on the following day I would learn the sad news that whereas the Youth grant went up, the Sports grant went down by 10 per cent. In the bureaucratic arrangement for the transfer of moneys between the Departments of Education and Labour, the eye of the Minister responsible for Sport, I will not say was wiped, but it was not wide open enough to see where the money was going.
The initial provision was there. We are sometimes reminded that this Government inherited the provisional Estimates prepared by the Fianna Fáil Government. We are always told that, when an Estimate did not fit the bill or meet requirements. This budget was prepared by our Government. The figures are there to show that there should have been a 1 per cent increase for all sporting organisations. In fact there is a 10 per cent decrease by this Government.
I ask the Minister to indicate to me why that money disappeared. I hope it will be discovered how it disappeared and that, having discovered the institutional or bureaucratic mistake that occurred, the Minister will apply himself to recovering it so that sporting organisations will at least be able to acknowledge that they are not being rebuffed, as they are led to believe they were. The Minister of State has been meeting them and I am sure he is aware of the disappointment and annoyance they felt.
Supposing all these great patriotic people were to withdraw from the 62 organisations tomorrow, what would happen? I realise they have not the same clout as trade unions, that they cannot stop planes from flying or milk from being delivered to creameries, or stand out in the middle of roads and interfere with the economic life of the country, but that is a virtue and we should not take advantage of their high sense of patriotism and generosity because we know they will not do it. We should not force them even to contemplate it. Rather should we discover where the £100,000 went.
The budget for the Department of Education is £900 million and it is not too much to look for and to provide the allocation for these organisations, inadequate and miserable as it was, as prepared by our Government. However, it is 11 per cent to 12 per cent in excess of what they have got.
I do not want to prejudice the case or to labour the point. I know these great people would not wish me to do it but I know that the temper and mood of these organisations has been disheartened and will militate against the advancement made under successive Governments in the last decade. I do not require the 20 minutes that you indicated I had because I do not propose to say anything more. The Minister of State, I know, will accept that at least an increase of 1 per cent was provided for and the fact is that there was a decrease of 10 per cent. Therefore, the money must have strayed away from the fund the Minister of State should have had to give to these great organisations. I hope the Minister will carry out an inquiry in the Department to see where it went and to try to restore it to its rightful place. This would give to these 62 organisations the minimum recognition they deserve.
