In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and an anti-social behaviour epidemic, encouraging young people’s participation in sports and other cultural activities is more important – and more difficult – than ever.
In August, Sinn Fein’s Chris Andrew TD and Aengus Ó’Snodaigh TD launched a proposal for an Activity Card, which would subsidise sports and cultural activities for children aged four to 18. Each child in Ireland would receive a card worth €130 that they could spend on extracurricular sports or arts activities each year.
The card is based on a scheme from Iceland where a similar subsidy card was provided to children. Since its introduction there in 2007, participation in sport cultural activities has increased, while anti-social behaviour has decreased. Its advocates say the scheme both encourages children to pursue their hobbies and has broader positive social impacts on their communities.
“In the short term, it’s aimed at supporting children in taking part in sports and cultural activities outside of school,” Chris Andrews, TD for Dublin Bay South, told The Liberty. “We are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, and research has clearly shown this is impacting children’s participation in activities outside of school. The card will provide support to keep children active.”
Idle hands are the devils’ playthings – keeping young people busy has long been seen as an important measure to prevent anti-social behaviour. “The Activity Card has great potential to help redirect children and teenagers away from activities associated with anti-social behaviour,” Andrews said.
“In the 1990s and 2000s Iceland had an alarming problem with the use of drugs and alcohol among teenagers. To counter the high levels of substance use, Iceland implemented a similar scheme. This resulted in a sharp decrease in the level of substance abuse by teenagers in the following years, and with a rise in participation in youth activities outside of school. The card also provided a pathway to a central database of activities that is easy and straightforward to use,” Andrews said.
However, the card alone should not be seen as fix all without adequate support from the government and investment in recreation for children.
“The card will not be able to do it in isolation. We need to see a step change from both the government and Dublin City Council and have sport and recreation viewed when you see a significant increase in investment and development in sports and recreational facilities,” Andrews said.
“From grassroots up sports has been utterly underfunded for decades. Year after year, figures from the European Commission have shown that we are the worst ratio of GDP devoted to sports and recreations, the condition and absence of facilities in the local area is a clear testament to that.”
“It’s a good idea in theory as long as there are facilities in each area that the money could be spent on,” Michael Teahan, head tutor of Dublin Music Academy, just off the Navan Road in Dublin 7, told The Liberty. “Sports and cultural activities have huge benefits for children and are underfunded and under-used, especially in the music sector.”
Brian Kelly, PR officer for Templeogue Synge Street GAA club, agreed: “Anything that assists in kids playing sport is money well spent. I can’t think of a reason why a club would say this is a bad idea.” But Kelly says the GAA already subsidises children who struggle financially.
“We have a policy that if anybody comes to us and wants to play football, but there is a stable resource issue, we immediately don’t charge and we allow them play free.
“I would bet most clubs in the country waive fees for players with income issues. We do it, and we do it gladly. Anything where the government steps in to help and support people playing sport is good,” Kelly said.
However, though Teahan and Kelly broadly support the scheme, they are worried that it could end up creating bureaucratic obstacles to their work. They’ve run into that sort of trouble before.
“We have had proposals for free workshops for schools and retired people rejected by the Arts Council for reasons of ‘where do we make money from it?’,” Teahan said. “If you can’t show you are charging people, then they will reject your application, despite the hours put in and the schools I approached had no money to pay for these workshops.”
Kelly said he worried about delayed payments. “Clubs have to operate on a month-to-month basis. We’re only just about getting by, and you couldn’t possibly wait months and months for money to come from a bureaucratic process with the government,” Kelly said.
Sinn Fein said the card would be made available online. Each parent would make an account and register their child and that’s when the €130 would be put into their account on the website. Clubs and schools would also have to register on the website and then children and parents could spend the money on the registered clubs listed. There has been no word on how quickly the clubs would receive the money spent through the scheme.
“It’s not a silver bullet that will solve every issue,” Andrews said. “But it will help a large cohort of those interested in sports and culture.”