I take it that in the comprehensive policy for youth and sport there is provision for the establishment of what is called a sports council. Would the Parliamentary Secretary acknowledge that the council which I established when we were in Government and which was functioning was disbanded by him three or four years ago? That being so, does he not acknowledge that coming along now to present to the young people in sports organisations the notion that he is establishing what was established four years ago and which, in fact, he disbanded, is a misrepresentation?

There is provision in the policy for a sports council and the council which is being established, as is clearly set out in the document, is very different and much more effective than the one which the Deputy and I both chaired at different times. The new sports council will have its own secretariat, will be independent in its function, will have its own chairman, not a political chairman and will have a clearly defined task which the other council did not, I think have. The new council will also have its own budget and will have representatives not only of the Department of Education but of all the Departments of State concerned with sporting affairs so that Government policy within the new council can be co-ordinated in a way that was impossible within the old council.

Is the Parliamentary Secretary not aware that the sports council which he disbanded was only in its early days——

This is becoming argumentative.

——and was, in fact, moving towards the co-ordination to which he has referred, was representative and was independent in the discharge of its functions to advise the Parliamentary Secretary? Does he not acknowledge that by disbanding that council four years ago he is now making politics of something that should not be so used?

How could you argue that the council was independent when its chairman was the politician in power? Secondly, there was no means by which the work of other Departments could be co-ordinated because these other Departments were not members of the council. The new council will contain members of the other Departments with the Government's full agreement.

The Parliamentary Secretary said something——

Sorry. Question No. 16—Deputy Gallagher.

I wanted to put on record that the council was autonomous and that the state bodies were represented on it.

Order.