I welcome Mr. Pat Costello, national director, Special Olympics Ireland. Given the year that is in it, we want to acknowledge at an early stage that there is something special about 2003. We want to ascertain the state of play now as opposed to inviting Mr. Costello to appear before the committee in August to tell us what we could have been doing. Therefore, I am delighted to ask him to give us an update on Team Ireland's preparations for the games. Ms Mary Davis is on her way. I invite Mr. Costello to make a presentation and if she has not arrived before he concludes, we will go straight to questions from members.
Special Olympics Ireland: Presentation.
I thank you, Chairman, and members of the joint committee. It is great to be back. I thank the committee for inviting us. This is my third time to appear before it. The last time I attended was a short time before June last year when many members were preparing for a big event, as we were. Members were preparing for a general election while we were preparing for our national games which were held in June last year and in which 1,600 athletes participated. It was the biggest event ever. We joined our colleagues in World Games in organising this major event which gave them an opportunity to test some of the venues they will use this year. Like many activities, it was a joint effort.
The next world summer games will be held in China. While we were having our national games in June, China was also having its national games. We had 1,600 Irish athletes participating while China had 1,000. This indicates the strength of the Special Olympics programme in Ireland and was one of the reasons Ireland was chosen to host the first ever world games outside the United States.
Following the national games in June, we selected Team Ireland. We were given by Special Olympics International in Washington an allocation of 452 athletes, the highest ever delegation for Ireland. Normally we would have 70 or 80 and are second only to the United States. We selected Team Ireland in the number of sports we offer in Ireland. Currently we offer 13, plus a motor activities programme for athletes who are not yet ready for sports competition and have different tasks to perform.
For international teams in the Special Olympics there is random selection from the gold medal winners at the previous competition. As our previous competition was our national games, we, therefore, had to select from our gold medal winners in the 13 sports we offer. That happened on 8 July in an open forum at Citywest Hotel in an open and transparent way in order that everyone who wanted could attend. Family members and coaches from all over Ireland attended. We cover the entire island of Ireland, encompassing 12,000 athletes.
Once the 452 athletes had been selected, we began the process of training, preparing and kitting them out. I have given members a hand-out which provides some information. There will be 452 athletes and 101 coaches. In addition, there will be 160 athletes in motor activities programmes. We must also have 130 one day coaches. This is a big team. All the coaches are volunteers. I have said many times that Special Olympics Ireland could not have survived for the past 25 years without the support of volunteers. No money could achieve this.
We have set out the schedule of training events, three of which have already taken place in the Dublin area. We will be bringing the athletes to Dublin where they will be accommodated during the world games in one day and overnight weekend sessions. The reason for this is that coaches must get to know the athletes and the athletes must get to know the coaches. There will be training sessions for the 13 sports. We must have the medical history of each athlete. As many of the athletes will not have been away from home before, we must build up a relationship with the coaches who have been doing a tremendous job. Three weekend training sessions have already taken place and another five are planned between now and the beginning of the games in June.
The cost is substantial. The total cost of preparing, training, coaching and kitting out Team Ireland is €450,000, for the 452 athletes and coaches alone. In addition, we must look after approximately 11,000 athletes countrywide. While they train on a daily or weekly basis, we must provide weekly, regional or area competitions for them. We cannot forget about them. In addition, we will require approximately €1 million in the current year.
I have broken down the figures. Gear for the athletes alone will cost €265,000. While one might say this is a tremendous amount of money, we must provide it for our athletes as they are representing Ireland. They cannot look shabby. We have engaged the services of Azuri, Waterford, an Irish company, which has been very supportive. It will provide in the region of 265,000 outfits between training and official team gear. The weekend training sessions cost us in the region of €30,000 per weekend for food, accommodation and transport. We must use 13 different venues.
Thanks to the support of members, we have been given a greater allocation this year through the Irish Sports Council. Some €100,000 has been allocated by the council to train Team Ireland, which is tremendous. However, there is still a long way to go because the cost to us will be €450,000. We hope the Department of Health and Children will come up with a grant, as happened in the past two years. Eircom has been our national sponsor for the past 17 years and we are negotiating with it to finalise an agreement. However, that still leaves a gap between corporate sponsorship, Government support and fund-raising. To this end, we are joining our colleagues in World Games in a Support an Athlete campaign which we hope will be very successful and about which Ms Davis will say more later.
The final leg torch run is a hugely symbolic awareness raising event on behalf of Special Olympics Ireland and of which we are very fortunate that the Garda Síochána and PSNI have been great supporters. Thanks to the support of our colleagues in World Games, we have been allowed to use it as a fund-raiser. Members of the Garda and the PSNI will run various routes throughout Ireland in the days before the games. It will be a huge event for which we will be looking for the support of everyone.
We are very hopeful we will have a very well prepared team of 452 athletes who will be well kitted out. They will do themselves, their families, communities, counties and the clubs from which they come justice, like any other athlete when he or she participates in games.
I thank members of the joint committee for listening to me. We are very proud that so many athletes are representing Ireland and that we are 25 years in existence, celebrating our silver anniversary this year - what a fitting way to celebrate by welcoming the world games. I will now hand over to my colleague, Ms Mary Davis, who will fill you in on the great event happening in June - the world summer games.
Ms Mary Davis
It is a pleasure to be here to up-date members since we last had the opportunity to do so. During the last year we spent a lot of time and money on the whole communications programme. I am sure members have seen many of the print and television advertisements which we hope will go a good way towards ensuring every home in Ireland will be aware of the games in June. We have been creating a lot of excitement and building awareness of the games. In a recent survey conducted by our premier sponsor, Bank of Ireland, there was 95% awareness that the games would be held in Ireland. This has played a key role in highlighting the scale of the event and helping the public to understand the benefits of the games for people with a learning disability. Our website has also played a key role in communicating the message of the games throughout the world. It is translated into nine languages and meets the web content accessibility guidelines at the highest level, namely, triple A. It recently won a golden spider award.
We launched the host town programme in April 2001 and within four months had 160 delegations twinned with cities and towns. When travelling around the country, one will see the signs indicating the various delegations which will come to the towns concerned. This is creating huge excitement in the local communities. All the committees have been set up and are working hard to make the necessary preparations to welcome the delegations when they arrive on 16 June.
The logistics and promotion of such an event require a dedicated network of supporters and volunteers. Through the volunteer programme, we have managed to recruit 29,980 volunteers who are undergoing a very comprehensive training programme. It is the largest number of volunteers ever mobilised in the history of the island. Our desire is that one of the legacies of the games will be that all of the volunteers will continue to volunteer in some capacity with Special Olympics Ireland and the many sports and community organisations throughout the country.
In excess of 2,000 Dublin families have agreed to play host to visiting families. Many of the visiting families could not afford to come here if they had to pay not only for their flights but also their accommodation. Having some Dublin families open their homes is fantastic for the visiting families and it will help to bring more people to the games who can share in the excitement and joy of their sons and daughters as they compete.
I mentioned on the last occasion that we were hoping to introduce a school enrichment programme in every school, North and South. I am delighted to say that programme was introduced last October and is being developed with the full support of the Departments of Education, North and South. As well as the volunteer programme, it will be one of the great legacies of staging the World Games in Ireland, bringing awareness to that number of children at primary and secondary level throughout the island who will also bring it into their homes.
On 4 June, the Special Olympics flame of hope will be lit in Athens and carried throughout Europe by the world's police forces. The Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland, and two Special Olympics athletes from Ireland, will go to Greece for the lighting of the torch and will also carry it, together with more than 100 members of international police force services, throughout Europe. The torch will arrive in Bangor on 13 June. It will be carried around the island by 2,000 members of the Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland, together with the international police force members who are also coming here, before being carried to Croke Park on 21 June to light the flame that will signify the start of the games. Much planning is going into the opening ceremony and I guarantee that this will be the most amazing event ever staged, bar the All-Ireland finals.
Moving on from the various programmes to the services required, from the moment the delegations arrive here, whether that is in Dublin, Belfast or Shannon, we have to look after all their needs as they will be guests of the island of Ireland. We have to cover all their accommodation and catering costs. Obviously we are pulling out all the stops to ensure that their arrival and transfer to the host towns for the four days from 16 to 20 June will be a trouble-free experience for them. We will do that by catering for their needs in every way. The competitors will speak 52 languages. We have set up many committees to assist delegates, members of which will speak delegates' language and will look after them throughout their stay.
Representatives from all the major hospitals, the health boards and unions, the Department of Health and Children, physiotherapists, doctors and voluntary first aid agencies are putting together the final plan to deliver a comprehensive medical service throughout the days the athletes will be here. We are also working on our own "Operation Freeflow" in devising a plan to move the 400 buses and the 250 cars and motorbikes that will be used to transport all the athletes, their family members, some 29,000 volunteers and all our guests. That is a major challenge, but with comprehensive planning we have been able to overcome it.
This time last year one of the major challenges we faced was finding the style of accommodation we required - universities, secondary schools and budget hotels - for the 10,000 athletes. I am delighted to report that we have fulfilled that need and, as we speak, the Prison Service is making 10,000 towels, which will be provided where required, in some of the secondary schools in particular and some of the universities. There is a wealth of support throughout the country and among the various agencies helping us with our requirements for the games.
Now that the athletes have somewhere to stay, we must turn our thoughts to providing the 600,000 meals, 250,000 sandwiches and 700,000 cups of tea and coffee we believe they will consume over the nine day period of the games. Our catering department is working extremely hard in that regard and all the plans are well in place in terms of boxed lunches, snacks and meals for everybody involved.
The games' accreditation system will form the backbone of the security arrangements as it will allow the security staff to tell at a glance which areas and zones are accessible and by whom. Everyone associated with the games will have successfully undergone a background security check by the Garda or the Police Service of Northern Ireland, depending on from where the volunteers are coming, before being accepted into the volunteer programme. We are in the process of concluding that with all those volunteers who are signed up with us. We have a major orientation weekend coming up on 22 and 23 February for all our volunteers in the Point Depot. That should be an exciting time as they all come together over a weekend.
From a health and safety perspective, a number of volunteers have been checking all the competition venues. We have 22 competition venues and more than 20 accommodation venues. They have identified any possible problem areas and allowed us to deal with them in plenty of time. Should a problem arise at the time of the games, our sophisticated communications system should allow us to react quickly. We have ordered 2,500 hand-held radios, 1,500 mobile phones are on hand and we have some 600 PCs, which we recently secured free of charge. We will also use 1,000 land lines. That system of communication will link all the venues and the various organisers who will be involved in the games and we should be ready to cope with any emergency with which we may be faced. Much of this work has been carried out with the help of the Defence Forces, who have put a great deal of effort into the organisation of the games. We are working closely with them and Eircom on the communication needs required.
Increasingly, the games are making everyone reach that little bit higher and organisations such as the Irish Sports Council, the Sports Council for Northern Ireland, national governing bodies of sport, engineers, architects and the construction industry are working together in the fitting out and building up of the 22 sports venues. Members can imagine all the sports equipment we are in the process of hiring and importing to ensure that all the venues will meet international standards. On the last occasion, I told members that the RDS will be completely transformed into an indoor sports arena, which is now well in hand. In terms of the sports facilities, the greatest jewel of all is the National Aquatic Centre in Abbotstown. That venue is an incredible legacy of the games taking place in Ireland. All our athletics are eagerly awaiting its opening to enable them to train in it in advance of the competitions in June.
It is not all about the effort and grind of competition. When the athletes are free to relax, we will provide them with many opportunities to enjoy themselves and take a break from all the competition venues. There will be nightly entertainment with discos and the Special Olympics town and festival village to which they will be able to go when they are not in competition. That will give them a chance to relax and experience the various entertainment activities that will be put on for them.
We cannot achieve any of this without the necessary finance. The games are costing €36 million in cash and another €20 million in in-kind services. The major costs relating to the games are accommodation, catering, venue fit-out, transport, insurance and IT. The Government, all the political parties down through the years we have been organising these games, the European Union, the Northern Ireland Executive, the Ireland Fund and other funds, individuals, companies and businesses throughout the country have joined together in a massive sponsorship and fund-raising drive and through this we have raised €32 million in cash and nearly all of the €20 million in-kind requirements have been met at this stage. That leaves us with €4 million to raise and we have in place a strategy to raise that money.
Our flagship fund-raising event, the Support an Athlete campaign, was launched in January in association with RTE. I wish to mention RTE because of the fantastic support it has given us in the promotion of the games and, particularly, its association with the Support an Athlete programme, a joint initiative with Special Olympics Ireland and Team Ireland which is targeting sports and social clubs, schools, organisations, companies and individuals to help us in our efforts. The cost is €1,000 per athlete and we hope to get as many of the 7,000 athletes as possible sponsored. If we manage to do this successfully, it will give us a little contingency.
Apart from finance, the other critical issue for us is people. While we have got almost the 30,000 we require, we want people who want the games to happen and will do everything to ensure their success. The great news for us is that not a day goes by without somebody offering help. As we get closer, greater effort is being made all the time. If we can maintain this momentum of effort and generosity of spirit, we can overcome any challenge we will face over the next four to four and a half months.
For the board of directors with whom I work and all the team involved in the world games and me, the greatest challenge is not that we are staging an event of the magnitude and size of the world games but to ensure there are no barriers or obstacles which preclude any person with a learning disability from becoming a totally integrated member of the community. That challenge is even more significant given that next year has been designated European Year of People with Disabilities.
The games will be successful only if they make a significant contribution to understanding and awareness and leave a legacy behind which will translate into the fullest participation in the community. If members have any questions, Pat and I will be delighted to answer them.
I congratulate both of you on an excellent and comprehensive presentation which has left us with little to ask. I am floored that you have been able to say in a few minutes what you have done. It is an understatement to say a huge amount of work has been done. You have had to cover some of the matters some would not see as issues before people land here. They include the obvious and less obvious.
I was going to ask if you had got the 30,000 volunteers you wanted but you are very close to getting them. You are still open for volunteers and need the Support an Athlete campaign to be pursued.
A couple of years ago I was in Cuba where I visited a school and met two children who were part of the Cuban team coming here. They were excited to see a real Irish person and could not wait to come to Ireland. Therefore, it is not a nine day wonder later this year. It has gained a great deal of momentum and will continue to do so.
What I appreciated about your contribution was that you did not focus on those nine days and said you hoped the 30,000 volunteers would then become involved in other things. Having recently worked with those involved in the Community Games, I know there is much great work being done by the voluntary sector. It is important people gain experience from this event which is a very worthwhile project.
I join you, Chairman, in congratulating and complimenting Mr. Pat Costello and Ms Mary Davis on the way they have organised this event which will be the greatest and largest ever held in this country and which demonstrates the fact that we are capable of organising such an international event. They have shown the way and provided a good example on how it can be done. It is also significant because it is the first time the Special Olympics have been held outside the United States. Much attention will be paid to Ireland as regards the way in which we organise the event, the facilities we offer and also the feedback from the athletes and their families. If the volunteers meet the challenge, it will be an important promotional event and send out a positive message about Ireland and its people. It affords us all a great opportunity to rise to the challenge and support it in every way possible.
It is important to point out that without the Special Olympics we probably would not have a national aquatics centre, which was designed for the games. I visited it recently and it is a fine facility, one of the finest in Europe. We should be grateful to the Special Olympics for this. The GAA would probably not have gone as far in Croke Park were it not for the commitment it made to ensure the stadium would be ready for the Special Olympics. As a result, it is one of the finest stadiums in Europe. Last year, for example, it had the sixth largest attendance at an event. The fact the grand opening will be held there in June ensured the GAA would have it ready. It will be exposed to a global audience.
I seek some clarification on the question of insurance. I have received many letters - I am sure I speak for other members also - from sports organisations and community centres which are finding it very difficult to keep facilities open because of the hike in insurance costs. Have you faced difficulties in regard to insurance? Are there any impositions on you as a result of insurance and, if there are, is there a way in which the Government or Departments could help? As regards insurance at local level where families, facilities and so on are concerned, will you clarify the position? The matter was mentioned to me in passing. I do not know if it is a problem but hope it is not.
As a former physical education teacher, I worked with special children. Some of the children I coached won medals in Ballsbridge. There is a major lack of physical education for children in special schools. I hope this event will send a clear message that sport is very important for people with special needs as it is a way of helping them to achieve and boost their self-esteem considerably. We have paid lip-service to this for too long.
I hope we will be more sensitive to people with special needs as a result of this event and that it will send out a strong message. People with special needs can achieve in sport if given the opportunity. I hope when people see the joy performing and competing brings to the young people concerned that it will dawn on them and decision-makers that sport and physical education, in particular, are very important for this generally neglected group in our society. I hope that will be one of the legacies of the event.
Again, I compliment you on doing a truly profession job, not only for the athletes involved but also for the country.
I must declare a vested interest in that my 22 year old daughter has Down's syndrome. I was not a member of this committee previously and I am astounded at what has been achieved. Finding 30,000 volunteers is a marvellous feat nowadays because sporting, community and other organisations are finding it increasingly difficult to get them. Mr. Costello and Ms Davis have done such a comprehensive and professional job that the only issue that is to be addressed is the €4 million shortfall in the programme. They have done a wonderful job and the event will be a tremendous exercise for the national psyche because it will elicit a generous and continuing response from people. As Deputy Deenihan said there are many gaps in the provision for special needs in our society. As well as the undoubted success of the event, other benefits will accrue to us as a nation. Indeed, it is admirable that this is an all-island of Ireland project. It is a change to have the police running with torches rather than after other people with torches. I wish Mr. Costello and Ms Davis every success in what will be a wonderful event for the country in so many ways.
I join my colleagues in welcoming Mr. Costello and Ms Davis here today. I had the pleasure of being a member of the previous committee when we received a presentation on the Special Olympics. Awareness about the event at that point was about 20% and I do not know what the number of volunteers was, but it certainly was not 29,980. The presentation to the previous committee was probably one of the most uplifting experiences I had in my time in Seanad Éireann. It is not often we get such positive presentations in any of the committee rooms. Yet again, we have had what can only be described as an uplifting presentation. It reminds me of the duck cruising along serenely on the surface of a pond while its legs are paddling hard underneath. To say this will be the biggest sporting event in the country, and probably the world, in 2003 is being simplistic. This is also the biggest undertaking in Ireland from the point of view of volunteerism. Deputy Deenihan referred to the spin-off effects that will accrue and the aquatic centre and Croke Park are certainly further down the road than they would have been without the event.
I do not know if any other organisation could have assembled 30,000 volunteers and I congratulate Mr. Costello and Ms Davis on that. I have no doubt that following the games and their success, the ethos of volunteerism which has been in decline in recent years will have been utterly rejuvenated. Our awareness of disability and its place within the community will also be greatly enhanced. Those two spin-offs alone, while somewhat intangible, will nevertheless be hugely beneficial to the country and the community. We will have a much better place to live in as a result and our people will have been enriched by the experience. I congratulate you both and wish you well and look forward to your next appearance at the committee which will, no doubt, be to report on the huge success of the games.
There were indications some months ago that there may have been some difficulties with the personnel security check and that a backlog was developing in terms of the schedule. Can Mr. Costello and Ms Davis confirm there are no such difficulties, particularly seeing as there will be a huge increase in new volunteers in the coming months as real awareness emerges? I would like an assurance that they do not anticipate difficulties in this area.
At the risk of sounding boring, I too wish to pay tribute to the organisational skills and enthusiasm behind this national project. It has become national in the sense that as one travels around the country one reads which country a given town will host. This provides wonderful educational opportunities to the schoolchildren in those towns. It is extraordinary to hear how well organised and thorough the organisation and the extraordinary army of volunteers have become. I hope it has been as easy as it sounds, but I doubt it.
According to the presentation, €100,000 was returned to the Government. Was that VAT paid to the Government? Can we get that money back or what was its purpose?
I wish to associate myself with the powerful words of support offered here which are well deserved. This event reflects a maturing of this State. Deputies O'Shea and Deenihan and I have worked at fighting for opportunities for people with special needs so they can express and enjoy themselves, display their skills and develop their talents. There have always been obstacles and problems but I hope that, as well as being an organisational success, this event helps break down the prejudices against people with special needs still present in society. Despite what people say, they still exist.
I hope there will be a carry-over of the dynamism of these games to a situation where we will have, if not a charter of rights, an expression of rights for people with special needs that would become part of the legislation of this country. Every committee and discussion bemoans the lack of social capital and the fact that volunteerism has gone out of the picture because people do not have time between commuting, working and the pressures of life. This shows there is a well of support present in society but I hope it carries on beyond this year. Without doubt, the involvement of young people in schools in hosting different countries has made a real and living connection between people with special needs and the globe. The importance of these games cannot be overstated. I hope people will be encouraged to look beyond the pictures and images to see that this is rooted in our society and that it is something we need to take further. I again congratulate Special Olympics Ireland.
We had the controversy of whether to use Connacht. I see that the four regions are Munster, Leinster, Connacht and Northern Ireland. Is Donegal included as Ulster? Should I be waving a flag? There are a couple of Donegal folk here so I want to cover that first.
Ms Davis
I thank the Chairperson, Deputies and Senators for their kind words of encouragement. We really appreciate them at this time. We have a lot of work done, but there are still four and a half months to go and quite an amount of work to get done. It is great to come here and find so much encouragement right across the board. Obviously it is critically important to ensure that this event is adequately insured, but it is also financially challenging for us. A number of insurance policies are required to cover this event, including but not limited to public product liability, employer's liability, motor-related, personal accident and professional indemnity. We are working very closely with Coyle Hamilton who, like many of the other agencies we work with, are giving their services free of charge. It is liaising with a syndicate of insurance companies to obtain the best deals on our behalf. As with all events that have gone before this, insurance costs are very high - we are looking at a bill of around €2 million, of which €900,000 is to cover a lot of the policies.
What we have been advised to do by Coyle Hamilton and their advisers from the insurance business is to put aside the first €1.5 million. We are in discussions with the Government and other groups about how best we can manage that. The past history of claims for Special Olympics events is very good. The highest it has ever been over the past ten world games was $200,000 so it is not that high. However, we must have that insurance cover. We are adequately covered, there is no doubt about that. All the host towns are covered, as is every event we are organising. Obviously, we would like to get some letter of credit to meet the first €1.5 million in claims and cost payments relating to the games. That would be very helpful in reducing some of our budgetary costs.
I am a physical education teacher and have worked in special schools for many years. I understand members' concerns in that area. Some work has been done, but there is a lot more to be done in terms of providing adequate facilities. I hope that as a result of these games, everyone will see the importance of providing sporting opportunities.
There was a backlog in terms of security checking of volunteers in the initial stages, but that was cleared up very quickly by the Garda and there is absolutely no issue in relation to that now. Everybody has been checked by the Garda or the PSNI. Our target is 30,000 volunteers and we are very close to that now so over the next few weeks we will probably be announcing that the volunteer programme is full. The programme will not be open right up to the games because everybody must go through the comprehensive training programme we offer, which consists of various stages. They must do a general orientation, as I mentioned, in the Point Theatre. They must do specific training and then sports-specific or whatever the activity they are involved in. We could not leave it open right up to the end because we would not have the time to train the volunteers adequately. I assure members they will all be screened and there is no problem with that.
The Garda has been fantastic, working closely with us to secure that, and it has seconded a member to work full time on the team, which now consists of 152 full-time staff. They work with about 2,000 volunteers, who work on a daily basis around the clock, and then there is the wider group of volunteers we are training for games time. Of course, we also have the host town volunteers working on all the committees. I was asked a question on the figure of €100,000.
That was based on last year's figures. We were given grant aid from the Government of about €300,000. Even though we have charitable status, however, we are still obliged to pay VAT and PRSI so the costs are in the region of €100,000. We are still very grateful for the amount of support we get from the Irish Sports Council, the Department and all Departments, and indeed, as Ms Davis said, from all political parties. As people have said here, it has not been patronising in any way - it is full support. People want to get behind Special Olympics Ireland, as an organisation for people with learning disabilities and the event of a world games.
This is a time of great opportunity, for SOI in particular, and great challenge. The opportunity consists, as Ms Davis said, of the number of volunteers, sponsors and host towns that will be exposed to the Special Olympics as well as the school enrichment programme. The challenge is for us to capture that, to make sure there is a strong legacy from those games. The legacy is already there in that SOI now offers 13 sports, four more than we did two years ago. We have the school enrichment programme, as Ms Davis mentioned. Our athletes are volunteers for the world games and some of them are officials at the world games. One can see that the legacy is already there, and I know that with the support of the Houses of the Oireachtas and the public, which has been tremendous, this legacy will be there for years to come, not just for SOI but for all people with disabilities and all sporting organisations. This will give an opportunity for everybody to show off his or her ability and that is what we in SOI are all about.
The Chairman mentioned Donegal and we have athletes from there. In SOI we have four regions - some of them are provinces but we refer to them as regions. At the moment Donegal is with the Connacht region.
It seems we are put in with Northern Ireland more often than with Connacht.
Is SOI to bring out another edition of this before the games?
Yes; that is an SOI edition and we hope to bring it out before the games.
On the matter of fundraising, they might ask Deputy Kenny who might like to have his photograph inside.
I was hoping somebody would explain this somewhere along the way so I would not have to demonstrate my ignorance. There was one event there, bocce, which I do not even know how to pronounce.
Ms Davis
It is pronounced "boch-ay" and is similar to the French game of boules. The Senator will have to come along and see it when it is in the RDS.
It is one of our new sports.
I congratulate Ms Davis and Mr. Collins. I had the pleasure of attending one of SOI's fundraisers recently in Galway. It was a magnificent night and a credit to the organisers. They mentioned that they had €32 million collected and wished to raise €4 million more. How do they expect to raise that €4 million? Do they expect us to make a recommendation to the various Departments to give the SOI an increase in its allocation?
Ms Davis
We have our Support an Athlete programme, which we launched in January, and that has gone into every school, community group and agency as well as smaller companies that might not have been able to come in with bigger sponsorship. We are asking them to support an athlete for €1,000 per athlete, which will go towards the athlete's accommodation, catering and transportation, the costs that are high for us. We are hoping to get as many of the athletes sponsored as possible, and that will cover the additional €4 million. We also have a couple of other ongoing fundraising events. We have been running a golf challenge over the past two years which will be run again this year. We have a strategy in place to raise the rest of the money. If we could get the insurance sorted out it would be fantastic. Everyone is working with us to try to solve that problem.
I thank the delegation for its presentation. I did my own small part for the Special Olympics on Christmas day when I did a sponsored swim.
I thank both Ms Davis and Mr. Costello. Many people come here with problems, not solutions. When people look at the special needs issue, they look at the disability, not the ability. Thankfully the reverse is the case today. If we had more meetings like this we would be a happy committee. When it comes to the summer, many people will kick themselves that they did not get involved. If bringing the delegation before us today helps to continue raising public awareness, we are very glad. The host towns and the athletes are very much looking forward to this. I am sure Ms Davis and Mr. Costello are looking forward to putting their feet up afterwards. I hope the media continues to give this event the coverage it deserves and that sponsors continue to be so extremely generous.
A phenomenal job has been done so far and the games will be a great success. We wish the delegation well in the endeavours of the next four and a half months.
The joint committee adjourned at 5.15 p.m. until 4.15 p.m. on Wednesday, 19 February 2003.