In recent years we have seen a significant increase in the number of people with disabilities taking part in sports. Let us consider the Special Olympics and more recently the Paralympic Games and the benefits they bring from a health perspective. I call on the Leader to facilitate at some stage before the end of term a debate with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport specifically on activity and inclusion of people with disabilities in all sports. I note the fact that several million euro have been made available in the past 18 months to upgrade swimming pools throughout the country to make them accessible to people with disabilities. Before the end of term I hope to have representatives from the Cara APA Centre at the Institution of Technology in Tralee make a presentation here on its worldwide ground-breaking research on the inclusivity of people with physical disabilities in sport. I also hope to facilitate a presentation in the audiovisual room from the three main sporting organisations in the country, the GAA, the FAI and the IRFU, on the significant behind-the-scenes work they are doing to encourage the various units of their organisations to engage with people with disabilities and facilitate equal access to sport.

The health of our nation is remarkably important and the health and physical activity of people with disabilities is an area that needs to be further developed. It needs resources to be channelled by central government. A public private partnership between the main sporting bodies and the Government in this area is necessary because we are all aware of the equality that participation in sport can create.

I strongly support Senator Conway's call for us to do everything possible to give equal access to sport for people with disabilities. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of spending some time in the company of a woman who spends a good deal of her spare time working with people with disabilities and involving them in sporting activities in my home town of Ballinasloe.

I wish to remind the House of the tragedy that took place two weeks ago in Bangladesh, where over 400 people lost their lives and over 1,000 are unaccounted for or injured as the result of a horrific fire in the Rama Plaza clothing manufacturing facility.

There is a danger that as media attention moves focus from that tragedy we would forget about it. There is a deadline of 15 May for putting in place a fire and building safety plan to which government, unions and employers are signing up. It is essential that Irish retailers which operate on our high streets sign up to that agreement. All of them are active in the Single European Market. The conditions in the factory are of huge concern. As customers, we have an obligation to put pressure on the stores to which we give our custom. We should keep pressure on them to ensure they sign up to the agreement to which I referred, and that they sign up to ethical trading and sustainable employment conditions for those working in the factories. As politicians, we need to keep this issue on the agenda at national and European levels. It is appalling that people lost their lives in such appalling conditions, and we have a responsibility to ensure this never happens again.