Youth sport investment will promote excellence: Young Alliance

5.07.10pm GMT Thu 16th Feb 2006

The Alliance Party's youth wing has given a strong welcome to a £3.6 million investment in youth sport schemes announced by the Sports Council of Northern Ireland.

Chairman Cllr Ian James Parsley stated: "Too little recognition is given to the importance of sport. It is a luxury, but rather an essential part of education, and provides a genuine route towards high achievement for our young people.

"It is also essential that we take sporting activity for young people seriously. Expert guidance calls for a minimum two hours' PE in schools, and we should note this is the bare essential. 'Physical literacy' is a term very sensibly adopted by the Sports Council, and a well-targeted investment of this nature will promote not just sporting, but educational excellence.

"It is essential now that Councils match this sort of engagement in providing sporting facilities locally, especially where these are schools-focused but available to people of all ages."

ENDS