The Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation has called for a return to the traditional spirit and values which were once the hallmark of sport.
Dr McDaid said: "For many people these have been replaced by cynicism, gamesmanship and commercial excess, where winning at all costs is the order of the day."
Dr McDaid was introducing the Irish Sports Council Bill, which puts the council on a statutory basis. He said its role would be broadened beyond giving advice to executive functions, including some carried out by the Department.
The Fine Gael spokesman on tourism, sport and recreation, Mr Bernard Allen, said steps should be taken to include recreation, physical education and sport among Leaving Certificate subjects.
He said sport played a very important part in Irish lives but people were not always ready to take regular exercise and "to achieve a balanced lifestyle, involvement in sport is essential because it is necessary for healthy living, enjoyment and socialisation".
The Labour spokesman on tourism, sport and recreation, Mr Michael Ferris, said that despite a wealth of information, the Government had produced a lacklustre Bill, designed to do little else but give the sports council a statutory footing.
Urging the Government to clarify its plans for the proposed national stadium, Mr Pat Rabbitte (DL, Dublin South West) said they had had been told that the project was being driven by the Taoiseach's own enthusiasm for sport and by an astonishing "no strings attached" offer of a donation of £50 million from Mr J.P. McManus to help fund it.
"Mr McManus is a professional gambler and financial markets speculator who now lives in Switzerland, thus removing himself from the PAYE regime. Many people heard his name for the first time when it emerged that he was a shareholder in United Property Holdings, the company at the centre of the controversial deal involving the Johnston Mooney and O'Brien site in Ballsbridge.
"If the donation is of the level suggested and genuinely without any strings or conditions, then it is a gesture of extraordinary generosity. However, little or nothing of Mr McManus's donation or involvement in the project has been put on the record and whatever we have seen reported has tended to be on the basis of leaks or rumours. I think it would be useful if all of this were to be formally put on the record."