I agree with everything that has been said in the well-reasoned speech of Deputy Traynor. I should like just to say in passing that, if the Deputy's views are accepted and there is going to be a gymnasium here in which we are going to spar, I should be allowed to choose my sparring partner, and I think I would take the Minister for Local Government in preference to Deputy Traynor.
To get back to this amendment, I will first deal with my support of amendment 10 because I think amendment 10 is an amendment which will commend itself to the House. I put down amendment 10 separately for that reason because it does appear to me that there is a stronger case for the sport affected by amendment No. 10 than there really is for any other class of sport. As Deputy Traynor has remarked, Irish amateur boxing at the present moment stands very high. In the last few years we have done very well at the Olympic Games. That is the position if we take the Irish Amateur Boxing Association or the championships which were decided before the Olympic Games. As showing the high-water mark reached in boxing in the last few years we find that the Irish heavy-weights won twice and the cruiser boxers won on one occasion. That shows that Irish amateur boxing is at a very high peak.
There was one remarkable thing the other day when the Italian team came over. The Italian team is looked upon as the strongest boxing team. That team met, not only one Irish but three Irish teams. It met a team in Dublin and was beaten by that Dublin team. The Italian team went down to Ballyhaunis and there they met a second Irish team not containing a single man who was on the first team. There the Italians won by a narrow margin of one. Then the Italian team went to Cork and in Cork they met a third Irish team which contained not a single man who had appeared in any one of the other contests, and the Italians were beaten in Cork. That shows that at the present moment not only is Irish boxing in an extremely good way, but that it is not a matter of our having one outstanding man in one particular class. We have men in practically every class who are so close, one to another, that it is very difficult to say who is best. I might mention too that it was very remarkable that the heavy-weight champion from Italy, who bore the famous historical name of Medici, was knocked down by the runner-up in our heavy-weight championship. That runner-up was a young Gárda who comes from Sligo, and he is obviously not yet at his best.
Irish boxing is in a very happy position at the present moment except in one single respect. It is in a most unhappy position financially. I have got some figures here which I am sure the Minister has already received. They deal with the visit of this last Italian team. The Irish Boxing Association was a sum of £177 to the bad on that contest, and of that £177 a sum of £83 is because of the tax. In other words, the loss would be only half of what it is if they had not paid the tax. I should like to draw the Minister's attention to another matter —open air tournaments. International open air tournaments can only be held in the summer time. All that the hire of Dalymount Park came to was £35. Until this tax was imposed the I.A.B.A. was able to get during the winter time German and other teams, and they were able to take, as they did on two occasions, the Theatre Royal for these teams. Of course, the expenditure on the taking of the Theatre Royal is very heavy and it was impossible for them to attempt any international test last year because the international test would be out-of-doors.
It is a good thing for sports to have an international test, a very excellent thing. It gives men something to aim at and something to work at. If a man is going to compete on behalf of his country for anything, he trains hard and puts more interest into it than he will do when he is just going to be top dog in this country. That would be specially true if you had one man who was outstanding and had no one to compete with here. I would like to give the Minister just one other figure. The I.A.B.A. had to its credit before the Italian tournament a sum of £173. Now the entire of its credit balance has been completely wiped out. They say it is impossible for them unless they get this tax off to go on as they have been going. That is the communication which I received from the I.A.B.A. I am sure the Minister and other Deputies here have received a copy of the same letter. In that letter they say: "We unfortunately need this money and unless we get it we must go out of existence." That is not anything in the way of a formula at all. It is quite obvious from the figures that they cannot carry on. I would like to point out to the Minister that boxing in this country has been going ahead and going ahead in the most astounding way. Any number of new clubs have been affiliated, not only in Dublin but all round the country. I mentioned that there was a boxing club in Ballyhaunis. Two years ago there was none there. Now they have a very successful club, one that is able to enter into the boxing championships. That is very creditable. There are similar clubs in some of the smaller towns. I am not talking now of places like Cork. I will take an ordinary town like Ballina, which I happen to know, and Clonmel, where they have got most excellent boxing clubs. In Tubbercurry, in Sligo, there is an excellent boxing club. It is an expensive thing to carry on boxing clubs. Boxing gloves have to be bought and there are other considerable expenses as well. Boxing is not a thing that a man learns by nature. He must have instructors and these instructors have to be paid. There are now two boxing instructors in Ireland.
The progress that boxing has made in the last four years is shown by the fact that the number of active boxers has increased from 300 to 3,500. It is, therefore, a sport which is increasing in this country. It is suited to the country and it is a sport in which this country shows very great proficiency. It is now in danger of being put back by this tax, if not of being practically extinguished. I do not say that the I.A.B.A. cannot carry on because of the tax. I do not say that boxing will cease, because the universities will still be able to pay instructors. Boxing will also be carried on by the Army and Gárda, but as a national sport boxing will be destroyed. I would urge the Minister very strongly to take a sympathetic view of this and wipe out the tax. I do not know the amount the revenue derives from it. Neither does the Minister, because I asked the other day and he was not in a position to tell me. But I am quite certain that it cannot be a very substantial sum. As far as revenue is concerned, it must be a mere flea-bite. I would like to point out to the Minister that these taxes on boxing and swimming are really anomalous and unjust at the same time, because there is no tax on ordinary field athletics. There is no tax on running, weight-putting and things of that nature, and it is an anomaly to have a tax on sports such as boxing and swimming, which are very closely akin to ordinary athletics.
I think the Minister would be more logical in his Budget if he relieved the tax on these two particular forms of sport. I think if he did he would be satisfied that he had done a good day's work for building up boxing in the country. It is a great thing in a country to have a sport like this in the winter time. It is a great thing to have the young men trained to boxing and trained to take an interest in it. On its positive side, if I might say so, it is not only developing them physically but also, on its negative side, it is keeping them from association with undesirable persons. I might point out to the Minister that the success of two of the clubs I have mentioned is due to the patronage and activities of priests. In Ballyhaunis, for instance, it is very largely due to a priest there who takes a tremendous interest in athletics and it is just the same in Tubbercurry where the parish priest takes a tremendous interest in athletics. Both these priests value boxing very highly as not merely a physical developer and, as Deputy Traynor has put it, a character developer, but also they value it as keeping the young men out of mischief and getting them to take a healthy outlook upon life.
I dealt with this at greater length, possibly, than I meant to, but it is hard to remain concise upon such a subject. The remainder of my amendment deals with all outdoor sports and games. Again, I do not know what the loss to the revenue would be. Assuming that the cost would be even the same as last year it might be serious as far as some games are concerned. It might be serious I admit, but I do not know and I assume the Minister will tell us. About these outdoor games, however, there are some things I should like to say. Taxation or the entertainment tax most undoubtedly tends to keep them back. I know that one particular game of football is not taxed at the present moment while other games of football are taxed. It is quite probable that somebody may get up and say to me that it is the home game that is exempt from tax and that they are foreign games which are being taxed. As a matter of fact, no matter what their origin may be, they are all games which are being played in this country. I do not think myself—I know it is a matter upon which people who are interested in Gaelic football are divided in their opinions—but I do not think myself that Gaelic football would suffer in the slightest degree if the other games were exempt from taxation and put upon an equal footing with it. Gaelic football, after all, has now been established very well. It is on a firm footing and is perfectly fit to stand up on its own legs without any extraneous assistance of any kind. It is a game which is peculiarly suited to a great number of persons in this country. It is more suited than any other game, because Gaelic football is largely a game of long kicking and, in consequence, the man playing it is not under the same necessity of being in a very high class of training, such as the person who plays the other two games. A great number of the people who play Gaelic football are shop assistants and clerks and people of that kind who are not in a position to train. Therefore, I think that Gaelic football is a game admirably suited to this country and a game which is founded perfectly solidly and which is perfectly sure of its ground.
On this question of foreign games, I think that calling a game foreign as an abusive epithet is rather a mistake. For instance, take the case of Rugby football, which is one of the most popular games in England, but, so far as England is concerned, it is a foreign game. If any Deputy is interested in the history of Rugby football he will find it very completely recounted in an article which appeared in the Cornhill Magazine some years ago. Briefly, the history is that in the County Tipperary there used to be a football game in which one parish played against another parish and the ball was brought to its destination by using any method the players liked—either by kicking it or boxing it with their hands or catching it and running with it. A boy who had played this game in Tipperary was afterwards sent to Rugby College, and while being educated there he went out to play the ordinary game of football, which was, I think, something on the lines of Association football—that it is a foul if the ball touches your hand and so on—but this boy became intensely excited and, forgetting that he was in Warwickshire and not in Tipperary, he caught up the ball and ran away with it as hard as he could. That gave the players and the authorities of Rugby School a different idea, and so the game now known as Rugby was founded. The old principle that you could either kick the ball or run with the ball was introduced by this boy from Tipperary to English football for the first time.
Therefore, Rugby is a foreign game so far as England is concerned, but nobody in England starts up to declare that it is wrong to play it because it is foreign. Take the case of Association football. That has become a world-wide game. You see it played practically in every country in Europe. Austria and Spain, I think, are the principal Continental countries in which it is most vigorously played. In fact, I see now that it has become so popular in Spain that the bull fight has practically ceased to exist, and the place formerly occupied by the toreador in popular estimation is now occupied by the centre forward who is particularly skilled in placing goals. They do not think that they are any the worse Spaniards because it is a foreign game. I would suggest to the Minister that it would be a very good thing if there was no discrimination by the Government as far as games are concerned. Let anybody play any game he or she likes. It certainly will not hurt Gaelic football. As a matter of fact, I think that, apart from the amendment before the House—I may be out of order in making this remark possibly—I think that if the ban were taken off altogether Gaelic football would improve. However, I will stop before I am out of order.
The other games referred to are smaller games. Handball is a good and popular game, and I think that the receipts to the Exchequer would be very small. I think that gymnastic displays are much the same. I will return, however, to where I began, and impress on the Minister that boxing has really the highest claim of all, though I do not say that, if the tax is taken off, it will be in a flourishing condition. It will not. It has a frightful battle in front of it, but it has absolutely no hope of victory if this clause remains.