Vol. 385 No. 4
asked the Minister for Education if she agrees with a recent statement by the spokesperson on youth and sport that her Department was responsible for the downgrading of physical education in our schools; and, if so, the measures she intends to introduce within her Department to improve the position of physical education in both the primary and secondary sectors.
54.
asked the Minister for Education if she has authorised or if she has the power to authorise her Department to make policy decisions in regard to teaching in the primary and secondary sector without reference to her; and if she will explain the statement made by the Minister of State at her Department that her Department had deliberately downgraded physical education in our schools.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 35 and 54 together.
The Minister of State at my Department did not make these statements attributed to him by the Deputies. In fact, on numerous occasions, the Minister of State and I have paid tribute to the goodwill of teachers in providing a sport and physical education outlet in schools. He also announced recently that he had substantially increased funding to the mini-sport movement to enable it to expand its activities and to appoint for the first time a full-time development officer to work with teachers throughout the country.
For the first time the Department of Education have provided financial assistance to the Physical Education Teachers Association of Ireland to assist them in their efforts to develop physical culture in post-primary schools.
