Michael Ring is full of crap. He is using the National Lottery profits as a slush fund for Mayo- grants increased by 71% for that county in the last year alone. Westport has 11 swimming pools in various hotels but he diverted funding for another one. And all the while Katie Taylor trains in a gym with no toilets or showers.
So Mayo, a county known for GAA teams who choke on big occasions, gets top class facilities. And as a result world champions suffer. As usual the gombeen politician rewards mediocrity and punishes success. And then goes on to claim they were responsible for the success, it is straight out of a George Orwell novel. He should be ashamed of himself.
@ Rodrigo: Define a “proper sport”. Is there anything about this country you actually like?
People should have choices in what sports they play, although I agree that encouraging more people to take an interest in sport and fitness is a good idea – hopefully from an early age, in primary school. A proper curriculum would help, allowing children to try out a wide range of sports.
Re the facilities in Mayo, yes it is a problem that Ministers are too focused on their constituencies, as they focus on getting re-elected. All politics is local, none more so than in Ireland it seems. This is something that I’d love the Constitutional Convention to look at, but alas they won’t. Either Ministers resign on becoming a Minister – and possibly get a free pass into the next Dáil similar to the Ceann Comhairle – or there is some kind of mixed system, as SF have proposed. But trying to change the electoral system would be a divisive nightmare as there are so many options and people would feel their vote might not be as important as it is now. After all many people vote – rightly or wrongly – on the basis of who will be a Minister, and thus get to funnel money to the constituency.
Anyway, back on topic and congrats to ALL the team.
Forget the money for a moment (but just a moment), would he mind telling the Irish Sports Council to recognise all the Olympic Governing Bodies? The NTSA’s brought home medals for Ireland this year from international competition and has represented Ireland in the games in Atlanta and Sydney, but the ISC won’t recognise them because of piddling politics… and he could fix that with one phone call.
?Money?s big in sport. It?s better than putting it into hospitals, into consultants, into doctors.
Jaysus I heard him say this live. Is that whats representing us.
The *theory* is that investing in sports facilities and promoting sport raises the general health of the average person, thus combating chronic conditions like obesity and type two diabetes which are otherwise going to overwhelm the healthcare system shortly, and so investing in sport leads to savings in healthcare spending in the long term.
The theory does *not* say that we don’t need A&E units or surgeons…
…shame the Minister put both feet in it when trying to express that!
He explained it incredibly poorly (and possibly there was more to the quote or it was in response to a question asked by a journalist), but the theory as Mark says is a good one:
“Extrapolation from authoritative UK data suggests that these numbers could now amount to more than 300,000 overweight and obese children on the island of Ireland and they are probably rising at a rate of over 10,000 per year.”
“This year about 2,000 premature deaths in Ireland will be attributed to obesity and the numbers are growing relentlessly. Diseases which proportionally more obese people suffer from than the general population include hypertension, type 2 diabetes, angina, heart attack and osteoarthritis. There are indirect costs also such as days lost to the workplace due to illness arising from obesity and output foregone as a result of premature death. Using the accepted EU environmental cost benefit method, these deaths alone may be costing the state as much as €4bn per year.”
- Department of Health and Children, National Taskforce on Obesity
I think you are giving him abit too much credit there lads. Nobody asked him a question, after being invited on stage he just start shouting what seemed of the top of his head. Surely Enda’s speech writer could have sorted him out. Im sure it was a mistake rather than an intelligently thought out plan.
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Michael Ring is full of crap. He is using the National Lottery profits as a slush fund for Mayo- grants increased by 71% for that county in the last year alone. Westport has 11 swimming pools in various hotels but he diverted funding for another one. And all the while Katie Taylor trains in a gym with no toilets or showers.
So Mayo, a county known for GAA teams who choke on big occasions, gets top class facilities. And as a result world champions suffer. As usual the gombeen politician rewards mediocrity and punishes success. And then goes on to claim they were responsible for the success, it is straight out of a George Orwell novel. He should be ashamed of himself.
Well done Katie.
I say we abandon all GAA and get our people to play proper sports!
Yet again a speech worthy of an episode of val falvey T D hop on the band wagon and ride it to hell !!!
@ Rodrigo: Define a “proper sport”. Is there anything about this country you actually like?
People should have choices in what sports they play, although I agree that encouraging more people to take an interest in sport and fitness is a good idea – hopefully from an early age, in primary school. A proper curriculum would help, allowing children to try out a wide range of sports.
Re the facilities in Mayo, yes it is a problem that Ministers are too focused on their constituencies, as they focus on getting re-elected. All politics is local, none more so than in Ireland it seems. This is something that I’d love the Constitutional Convention to look at, but alas they won’t. Either Ministers resign on becoming a Minister – and possibly get a free pass into the next Dáil similar to the Ceann Comhairle – or there is some kind of mixed system, as SF have proposed. But trying to change the electoral system would be a divisive nightmare as there are so many options and people would feel their vote might not be as important as it is now. After all many people vote – rightly or wrongly – on the basis of who will be a Minister, and thus get to funnel money to the constituency.
Anyway, back on topic and congrats to ALL the team.
If only other sports were promoted as much as the GAA ….
Well done one and all. Each and every one of those athletes are a credit to their nation.
Hear, hear, and ignore the trolls!
Just can’t avoid the politicians. “i will try to get more money”. Some promise…..
Forget the money for a moment (but just a moment), would he mind telling the Irish Sports Council to recognise all the Olympic Governing Bodies? The NTSA’s brought home medals for Ireland this year from international competition and has represented Ireland in the games in Atlanta and Sydney, but the ISC won’t recognise them because of piddling politics… and he could fix that with one phone call.
?Money?s big in sport. It?s better than putting it into hospitals, into consultants, into doctors.
Jaysus I heard him say this live. Is that whats representing us.
The *theory* is that investing in sports facilities and promoting sport raises the general health of the average person, thus combating chronic conditions like obesity and type two diabetes which are otherwise going to overwhelm the healthcare system shortly, and so investing in sport leads to savings in healthcare spending in the long term.
The theory does *not* say that we don’t need A&E units or surgeons…
…shame the Minister put both feet in it when trying to express that!
He explained it incredibly poorly (and possibly there was more to the quote or it was in response to a question asked by a journalist), but the theory as Mark says is a good one:
“Extrapolation from authoritative UK data suggests that these numbers could now amount to more than 300,000 overweight and obese children on the island of Ireland and they are probably rising at a rate of over 10,000 per year.”
“This year about 2,000 premature deaths in Ireland will be attributed to obesity and the numbers are growing relentlessly. Diseases which proportionally more obese people suffer from than the general population include hypertension, type 2 diabetes, angina, heart attack and osteoarthritis. There are indirect costs also such as days lost to the workplace due to illness arising from obesity and output foregone as a result of premature death. Using the accepted EU environmental cost benefit method, these deaths alone may be costing the state as much as €4bn per year.”
- Department of Health and Children, National Taskforce on Obesity
I think you are giving him abit too much credit there lads. Nobody asked him a question, after being invited on stage he just start shouting what seemed of the top of his head. Surely Enda’s speech writer could have sorted him out. Im sure it was a mistake rather than an intelligently thought out plan.
It’s actually something they’ve been saying for a while Seamus, but it was horribly mangled there…
I think the more important question here is why the hell does the front window of the airplane roll down?!
In case the pilot needs a fag
In case the pilot or captain need to communicate with ground crew and don’t have a radio link, amongst other things…
Emergency exit
Golf will be in the Olympics 2016 Rio !
Golf is more of a game than a sport.
Rory crowned King and Katie crowned Queen. What a family they’d make, the new Irish Royalty.
and its an escape facility
why is Katie Taylor in a fake plane?