Sir - If Exchequer money is to be spent on sport, surely the priority should be to provide accessible facilities to enable all our citizens to readily engage in sport and be fit and healthy. I see no reason why the State should make any great efforts to contribute to sports spectator facilities when private organisations are prepared to provide them. On the one hand, the Government is attempting to reduce its involvement in areas in which it considers the State does not need to be deeply involved - e.g. by the privatisation of Eircom and the proposed privatisation of Aer Lingus and Aer Rianta. On the other hand, it has encouraged one organisation, the FAI, which was considering providing a privately funded sports facility, not to proceed with its plans. It appears that Government action may have also encouraged another organisation, the GAA, not to approve more efficient use of its privately funded stadium.
This is at a time when, for example, my local public swimming pool is open to individual members of the public for a miserable three hours a day every weekend, and most Dublin Corporation pools are open for public swimming for about five hours a day. This Government seems to be prepared to squander any amount of money to get all the important sporting organisations on board for Stadium Ireland, a facility in which many of us can watch sport, but where only the very lucky few can play. - Yours, etc.,
Christopher Kingston, Halston Street, Dublin 7.