I welcome the Minister and thank him for attending tonight to discuss this matter.
The motion I have tabled relates to the community games movement and reads:
The need for the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation to give urgent and favourable consideration to the provision of substantial financial support to the national Community Games movement.
Some 30 years ago Mr. Joe Connolly founded the national Community Games movement and neither he nor those around him could have envisaged the enormous development which has taken place in this area since 1967. It is estimated that 15 million young people between the ages of six and 17 years have been active in the national Community Games movement, a phenomenal number of young people in a country this size. Over a 30 year period 15 million young people have taken part in the games. Recently, the Cathaoirleach and I met Mr. Joe Connolly at the annual conference in the Hudson Bay Hotel in Athlone. He is a modest man and history will be kind to him as regards his great foresight and forward thinking in setting up such a wonderful movement.
Mens Sana in Corpore Sano, a healthy mind in a healthy body, is the motto of the national Community Games movement. The pledge given by every participant in the games is as follows:
We pledge ourselves to the ideals of the Community Games in a spirit of friendly rivalry. We shall strive to participate with honest endeavour. Our aim shall not be victory at any price but we shall genuinely seek to unite our community in friendly sporting competition. By competing fairly and honestly, we, the children of this community, shall attempt to make our (village, town, community etc.) a happier place in which to live.
Could one have finer motto or pledge? To date the national Community Games movement has not got the recognition from Government to which it is entitled. I express my thanks to this and previous Ministers who have given funds to the games. However, those of us who have looked at its organisation and activities will know that it is not getting the type of support it merits and which would be helpful to it in providing a better outlet for sporting activity for our young people.
Today, approximately 0.5 million young people are involved in the Community Games. At a time when we hear about drug abuse and peer pressure and issues which are part and parcel of life in the 1990s, it is heartening to find so many people working with young people on a voluntary basis and providing them with the opportunity to compete in healthy rivalry.
Some 0.5 million young people are involved in the games and the Government gives an annual grant of approximately £124,000. I suggest with some modesty that £1 per child should be provided which would not be too great a demand on Government. I appreciate the Minister faces many demands and I know he is a great supporter of the games because I have spoken to him privately on the matter. He has great enthusiasm for the Community Games and has plans for it. However, the movement will need more funds for it to progress into the second millennium and £1 per child is a target at which we should look.
The movement is a 32 county organisation, which is not widely known. Recently, it set up a peace and reconciliation committee in Belfast. It has also set up a company in Liverpool which is attached to Liverpool University and a steering group is working there. It also intends to hold winter games so it is progressive in its thinking and is identifying what will be necessary in the future.
Each year young people are drawn to Mosney where the finals of the Community Games take place. This is a major national event. The games fill a great void in Irish life. I am putting the case for the movement following a successful annual conference in County Roscommon. I undertook to publicly raise the position of the games and the problems it has with funding and organisation, with which it intends to deal. It is a voluntary organisation and perhaps it needs to set up more company procedures. It cannot continue to function on a voluntary basis.
I wish to highlight a national movement and its belief that it is entitled to more financial support from Government. The movement has plans for the future which will involve expenditure. It is in the process of rationalising its administrative structure and it intends to streamline and modernise its procedures. Every village town and community supports the movement because almost all have a community games committee. It is heartening that Joe Connolly could act on an idea and see it come to such fruition 30 years later.
The national Community Games movement is entering into a new phase which will involve extra expenditure and new procedures. I have no doubt the Minister will look favourably at the movement which is not an adversarial or demanding group. Of all the groups I have met in political life, it is the most modest and appreciative of me and others highlighting its case. I thank the Minister for coming to the House to listen my submission. I commend the people involved in the Community Games on the wonderful work they are doing and I hope the Minister and this and future Governments will see the merit of their work and provide a little more aid than in the past.
