Hansard

In congratulating Tom McCabe on securing this evening's debate, I recognise the important work that is being done both in his area and in my constituency. Across Glasgow, there are excellent examples of efforts to encourage young people to be active and involved in sports. One important example is the free swimming and free swimming lessons that Glasgow now offers to all its young people. We now need to consider who is taking up that opportunity to see whether more needs to be done.

Two voices can be heard when we talk about a sports strategy. One discussion concerns how we promote excellence and how we get our young athletes to represent Scotland and the UK on the international stage. In that regard, I am sure that many members would share my regret that some young sportspeople, who would have done Scotland proud on the international stage, have been denied the right to participate in the paralympics because of the bizarre decision to exclude people with learning disabilities. That is a matter of regret.

Achieving excellence and representing one's country is important, but I will concentrate my remarks on the importance of sport in encouraging the involvement in and take up of activities. Our health statistics clearly underpin the importance of exercise and of being involved in sport. We know that tackling ill health is not just about buildings, no matter how important they may be, but about addressing lifestyle issues.

As the motion says, sport can also offer an important lesson about community spirit and involvement. I have a friend whose son is a young footballer, whose talents are, I am happy to say, currently being used in the east end of Glasgow. In discussing that with his parents, I made the point that they must be very proud of him. His mother, as wise as ever, said, "Yes, I am proud of him and, if he doesn't make it, I will at least know that, for the next five or six years, he will be doing something positive with his life rather than perhaps taking some of the dead-end options that might be open to him in the city of Glasgow." If for no other reason, I am sure that that is why many people welcome the importance of sport.

We need to consider how we support activity locally, particularly in disadvantaged communities. We need to consider the groups that are more reluctant to be involved in sport. We also need to consider how people get access to sporting facilities. Not every young person has a mum and dad who can run around in a car to take them from one place to another. We need to consider that issue imaginatively.

Before mentioning Euro 2008, let me say that we perhaps need to recognise that, sometimes, when we talk about sport, we talk too much about sports that encourage only the passive spectator in us all. In my view, football can be particularly troubling, given the fact that the closest that people get to activity is not even to go to the game but to sit and watch it in the pub. Here I make a plug for participation in sports such as running, in which the elites run with the poorest and lamest, such as myself. That is perhaps an important egalitarian principle that we should consider.

I want to ask the minister where the moneys that have been released from the Euro 2008 bid are going. A number of local initiatives in my constituency would benefit from that money. For example, Hillwood boys club and Mosspark boys club—which run teams for boys and girls—serve an important community need, but their only resources are the people who run them, so their means are extremely limited.

It is important that we consider initiatives to support young girls in sport. Again, we should consider the models that have been developed in Glasgow through initiatives such as the women's 10K and the Glasgow women's jogging network, which recognise that girls are less likely to take up sport than boys.

Finally, I ask the minister to address the lack of access to funding for organisations such as local sports clubs. Sometimes, as in the case of Mosspark boys club in my constituency, such organisations are encircled by social inclusion partnership areas but still cannot get access to funds, despite the fact that they are meeting the same needs as are being met by other groups in the SIPs.

I welcome the debate. I urge the Executive to examine the anomalies in funding and to address not only the delivery of sports initiatives but the factors that will improve access to those sports initiatives for youngsters in my constituency and elsewhere.