Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation Dail Éireann — 2026-07-09 ============================================================ Peter Burke (FG), Longford-Westmeath The Deputy quite rightly outlined the challenges in this regard and how important it is to get equality of access and opportunity, which is a key theme. I support the Deputy's call to ensure that we have activity, regardless of age or socio-economic status. We must also progress the commitment in the sports for all approach, which is key on behalf of the Government. I will raise the Deputy's ideas in that regard with the Minister for sport. I commend her on driving this issue forward. This gives people opportunity. It is an investment in our children, our future, to be active and, essentially, bring them into the community, integrate them more and give them the best possibility of living a healthy life, which has huge additional benefits. We do not want any child to be held back by poverty. There is a poverty unit in the Department of the Taoiseach now. In relation to budget 2026, we focused on the child support payment and having a separate budget for child poverty, which we need to accelerate in the years ahead. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-09/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-09