Irish universities should set up scholarship programmes to train our athletes for major events such as the Olympics, Fine Gael said today.
The party made the call after the Minister for Arts, Culture and Sport, Mr O'Donoghue, promised an "Athens Review" to examine the disappointing performance of the Irish team at the Games in Greece.
He said a think-tank, to be chaired by former Enterprise Ireland chief Mr Dan Flinter, would "look at individual performances, team performances, and structures to see where they may be improved".
But Opposition Sports spokesman Mr Jimmy Deenihan called for a radical review of Government sports policy including greater emphasis on sport at primary school level and for athletics scholarships at universities.
Mr Deenihan said: "Professional coaches should be brought in for primary school kids to identify and nurture young stars of the future.
"Athletic scholarship programmes at our major universities would also stop the exodus of our athletes to the US and elsewhere.
"We have to bring in more professional systems if we are to take our place with the rest of the world in the international sports arena," he said.
It is now likely the 50-strong Irish Olympic team will exit the Games without a medal for the first time since Seoul in 1988. With only five days left, the team has so far failed to register on the medals table.
Mr Deenihan admitted the Irish team in Athens was "dogged by bad luck and underperformance."
Speaking on RTÉ Radio, Mr O'Donoghue defended the current strategies being pursued by his Department with the Irish Sports Council and the Olympic Council of Ireland.
He said: "We believe our strategy is correct and it will be proven to be correct in the Beijing Olympics in 2009 and beyond."