February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
That story came to mind over the past couple of weeks when it was common to hear people lamenting Ireland’s failure to qualify for the World Cup. Many admitted they’ll miss the way the whole nation usually gets caught up in the tension and drama of such an event. Without the Irish team present, there will be no excuse to create a few unofficial national holidays or wangle time off work. Beneath all of these statements, there was an assumption we are a particularly sports-mad country and for this alone, we almost deserved a ticket to Germany. After all, who cares about games more than us?
Well, it turns out such claims are based on wishful thinking. This week’s report into the state of sport in Irish schools made for pitiful reading. A few days after it was announced (not to anybody’s surprise) the Lansdowne Road refurbishment would be costing a lot more than previously thought, it emerged one in five secondary schools do not have a qualified Physical Education teacher, most students get much less than the recommended two hours per week of PE, and proper facilities are a massive problem for kids all of ages. That three out of four primary schools have no indoor hall in a climate like Ireland’s sums up the official neglect of sport.
This might be dismissed as just another scare-mongering report except that it’s just another scare-mongering report in a long line of them, each telling the same sorry story. Irish children are leading more and more sedentary lives, they do not participate in sport enough and as a consequence, are growing more obese than any previous generation. Last month, The Take Part survey conducted by Dublin City University discovered that 20 percent of teenagers between the age of 15 and 17 living in North Dublin were so overweight their life expectancy was already being ratcheted down.
“We are in no doubt that the positive trend in reducing coronary heart disease over the last two decades will quickly be reversed, and it is likely that some of today’s parents will outlive their children,” said Dr Will Fennell, president of the Irish Heart Foundation. “Not only are the levels of overweight and obesity of concern, but as the Take Part survey shows, a large number of young people are not physically active enough.”
How could this happen in an allegedly sports-mad country led by the absolutely, positively sports-mad Taoiseach Bertie Ahern? There are a few reasons, not all of which are the politicians’ fault. The growth of car sales has resulted in this generation of kids walking less than their predecessors, the economic boom has given them access to more and more electronic toys, and unlike their counterparts in the seventies, they have access to television and videos 24 hours a day. All of the above are problems afflicting America, Australia and Britain, too, and they are battling to get their children fitter as well.
What’s more specific to Ireland’s case is the political failure to properly address the issue of providing sport for all. Firstly, many of the tens of millions of euros of public money pumped into recreational facilities over the past decade went to clubs and concerns linked to senior members of Fianna Fail. Nobody cared whether or not it made economic sense to give grants to these outfits just because they were affiliated with ministers. The checks went out to the usual suspects, and clubs with links to other parties have basically been told to wait until their own people are back in power.
Secondly, there has been no cohesive policy to ensure proper facilities of all kinds are available nationwide so that kids might have the opportunity to exercise more. This goes way beyond providing clubhouses and pitches. According to one estimate, the ratio of playgrounds to kids in Ireland is one for almost every 20,000. That is not a healthy proportion. Even less so when it’s pointed out that the ratio of golf courses is one for every 10,000 people. That right there is a statistic summing up how near the bottom of the ladder of priorities an issue like children’s recreation resides.
Apart from the obvious benefits to society of keeping kids active so they have less time for mischief, the Playstation generation are starting to place enormous demands on the country’s (already) third world health service. Every survey warns obese kids turn into obese adults so the price for failing to give these children the chance to be healthy now will be spread out over decades. That’s why this is such an important issue. It’s about sport but it will actually end up seriously affecting the country’s exchequer.
“The information gathered from the research and the report’s many recommendations will now be examined in the context of developing future policy for sport and physical activity,” said John O’Donoghue, the minister for arts, tourism and sport, upon publication of the ESRI document.
O’Donoghue and his civil servants need to start by pumping millions more into school sport. Money is required to buy equipment to allow teachers – the unsung heroes who’ve so tirelessly promoted various games in Ireland this past century — to offer a range of different activities, beyond the staples of soccer, basketball and GAA. What was that Fianna Fail slogan in the last general election? A lot done, more to do. Sums up their attitude to sport anyway.