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Young people must be encouraged towards sport indie & outside school

Issued : Saturday 19 May, 2007

The Labour Party believes in giving all our children and young people the opportunity to have structured leisure and sporting time, and we are making this the centerpiece of the proposals we are launching today in "Giving Youth a Chance - Labour's Plan for Youth Activities."

Traditionally young people would become involved in sports and recreational activities either through their education, through playing sports locally, or by joining local sports clubs. Unfortunately in recent years these traditional gateways to sport and recreation have become squeezed.

For example in my own constituency of Dun Laoghaire the Government has been guilty of shocking neglect in allowing the famous Dun Laoghaire baths remain derelict. 30 years ago, at a time of fewer resources, the Baths provided a fantastic, safe sea-water swimming facility for thousands of children in the area.

Moreover a recent EU survey showed that Irish schools ranked close to the bottom of a Europe-wide league table for the provision of Physical Education in primary and secondary schools.

The failure to encourage children to exercise regularly and to educate them about the importance of sport and general fitness simply stores-up major problems for the future for overall health and well-being.

While Labour has proposed making PE more available to all schoolchildren and to become a Leaving Certificate subject, we are also aware that facilities and incentives must be available outside school-time to ensure that recreation does not simply become part of the school curriculum.

Offering adolescents structured leisure activities along the lines outlined in our document is also a means of combating anti-social behaviour. Many young offenders cite having 'nothing to do' as a reason for getting involved in petty crime. Therefore, providing community-based schemes in local sports clubs and schools will help counteract the drift towards anti social behaviour.

Ireland has an extremely poor record in providing sporting and recreational activities and schemes for children both inside and outside of the classroom. Labour wants to end this.

We want to ensure that PE is given the status it deserves in all our schools. But this must be backed-up with properly-resourced community based extra-curricular programmes for young people so they can develop their skills and their interest in sports and leisure.

In this way, we hope to give all children the best chance in life.