IT was bizarre that this State had only 95 public swimming pools, Prof Joe Lee (Ind) declared in the Seanad. Swimming pools helped to break down class barriers and they were supposed to be a crucial part of any infrastructure for civilised recreation, he said.
Contributing to the debate on the Government report, Targeting Sporting Change in Ireland, he said there was no way the Government could claim it was serious about the report's objectives unless it engaged in a significant programme to provide the necessary facilities. There was no comparison between the ambition of the objectives and the amount of money being allocated.
Mr David Norris (Ind) said he regarded the "tentative" proposal for a 50-metre training pool as too shallow an approach. Why was a real competitive pool not being contemplated? When we had three Olympic gold medals, plans for a 50-metre "paddling pool" were not good enough.
Mr Michael Lanigan (FF) complained that there was too much emphasis in the report on the organisational side and not enough on the many voluntary bodies and the huge number of people involved in sport and recreation. Schools and other bodies at ground level were at the bottom of the pyramid announced by the Minister of State, Mr Bernard Allen. This order of priorities must be reversed.
Replying to the debate, the Minister of State for Education, Mr Bernard Allen, said he believed the report could be implemented with the existing resources, augmented by some additional finance, not necessarily from the public sector.
MR David Norris (Ind) urged that party leaders meet to ensure that abortion did not become a political football.
The failure of Fianna Fail to come up with a form of words for a party press statement indicated that it was unlikely to be more successful at the umpteenth shot at providing a wording to deal with this problem, he contended.
Mr Michael O'Kennedy (FF) thanked Mr Norris for vigorously attacking Fianna Fail on this issue. Fianna Fail supporters would be reassured to discover that Mr Norris was totally at odds with them, he said. Mr Norris retorted: "You are odds with yourselves. That's the whole problem."