2026-03-03

141. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport when the next round of the community sport facilities fund will be open; if he will consider allowing clubs use this fund to buy land; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16263/26]

150. Deputy Shane Moynihan asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport when the next round of the community sports facilities fund will open; the criteria that will be used to assess applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16793/26]

157. Deputy Peter 'Chap' Cleere asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport if the sports capital and equipment fund will open for applications in 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16745/26]

160. Deputy Tony McCormack asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport when the next round of the sports capital and equipment programme will be announced; the expected timeline for the opening of applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16794/26]

163. Deputy James O'Connor asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport if he has discussed the potential total funding that will be available for the next round of the community sports facilities fund; if his Department has completed the review of the last round of the same fund; the timeline for the next round of the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16720/26]

166. Deputy Peter 'Chap' Cleere asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport if the community sports facilities fund will open for applications in 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16744/26]

167. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport when he intends to announce the next round of funding under the community sports facilities fund; if any amendments to the eligibility or assessment criteria are planned; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16722/26]

171. Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport when the new round of the community sports facilities fund grants will open; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16807/26]

188. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport when the new round of the community sports facilities fund will launch in 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16769/26]

198. Deputy Barry Ward asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport the position regarding the reopening of applications under the sports capital programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16470/26]

I want to ask the Minister about the next round of the community sports facilities fund, when it will open and if he will consider allowing clubs use the fund to buy land.

I thank Deputy O'Rourke. I propose to take Questions Nos. 141, 150, 157, 160, 163, 166, 167, 171, 188 and 198 together. The programme for Government commits to continuing the community sports facilities fund and to directing its funding to disadvantaged areas and groups that are currently under-represented in terms of participation. My Department’s statement of strategy for 2025 to 2028 commits to continuing to invest in sports infrastructure at local, regional and national levels through the community sports facilities fund and the large-scale sports infrastructure fund. These funds will be critical to advancing delivery of high-quality sport facilities and equipment over the lifetime of the strategy. Infrastructure is key to sporting participation and success, and we will continue to invest in sports infrastructure at local, regional and national levels. The funds will be critical to advancing delivery of high-quality, accessible and sustainable sport facilities and equipment, which will ensure the development of a sporting ecosystem that enables more people, including people with disabilities, older people and people from disadvantaged communities, to participate and benefit from sport at all levels. The community sports facilities fund is the primary means of providing Government funding to sport and community organisations at local, regional and national levels throughout the country. The fund aims to foster an integrated and planned approach to the development of sports and physical recreation facilities and assist the purchase of non-personal sports equipment. The community sports facilities fund, previously known as the sports capital and equipment programme, operated from 1998 with annual rounds and, in more recent years, biennial rounds. More than 19,000 projects have benefited from the fund with a total investment so far of €1.43 billion. That has transformed the sporting landscape across the country. It has led to a significant increase in participation, which is our objective, and that in turn has put pressure on facilities and speaks to the need for us to continue to invest significantly. In the most recent round, €250 million was allocated to just over 3,000 sports clubs and facilities. Forty sports benefited from that, as well as multi-sport facilities throughout the country. The programme for Government commits to supporting local authorities in the acquisition of new lands for parks and playing pitches. While the community sports facilities fund does not provide for the acquisition of land, the Government is supportive of local authorities working in areas where there are challenges to identify suitable land, which local clubs and the community can avail of and be supported by funding from the Department to develop playing facilities on. In line with previous rounds of the fund, a review of the current round has been undertaken by the Department and will be published shortly. I have asked the Department to prepare for a round of the fund in the coming months, with the objective of opening it in late May and early June. It is anticipated that the next round will target areas and sports that have been underinvested in over the years. My Department is collating feedback from sporting clubs and organisations in relation to their needs and that valuable input is going into our preparations for the next round. My aim is to have as many eligible sporting bodies as possible applying, by simplifying the application process and guide and carrying out a wide-reaching communications campaign. Many clubs are relying on volunteers, and some find it difficult and cumbersome to navigate the current system and processes. With a revised and simplified application and assessment process, the aim is to make it easier and quicker for clubs to navigate the system at all stages and to allow for quicker turnaround times while reducing the workload for both the club and my Department.

Will the Minister of State indicate when we might see this? Will it be in quarter 2, quarter 3 or quarter 4? I welcome the fact that the application process will be simplified. There is a direct correlation between those accessing this funding and the capacity within the organisations involved, even at club level, in the context of completing the forms. There is a barrier that needs to be to be addressed. The Minister of State indicated that a review is coming. What does he mean by that, particularly in the context of targeting sports that have been the subject of underinvestment over the years? Every sport feels that it could do with more investment.

When the Minister of State visited Tuam with his officials and held a meeting to give all the clubs in County Galway an understanding of what changes they might be able to anticipate in the upcoming sports capital programme and answer the questions they had, it was very warmly received. That was a really productive exercise. I welcome his statement to the effect that applications will open in May or June. It is very important that the Department continues to learn from previous applications as to what worked, what did not work and how we can move forward stronger into the future. As I outlined to the Minister of State previously, we have many clubs in Galway that are based in areas where the population is growing, where needs are growing and where further investment in required. It is vital that clubs right across the country continue to receive investment, that Government increases the funding for the sports capital programme and that clubs are supported to achieve their best potential. I firmly believe that this is the most efficiently spent money in the State, particularly when it goes directly to the clubs and they then make it happen.

The plan is to open it in late May or June, with the objective of having funding announcements committed to and the process completed by the end of the year. As I travel around the country, it is very clear that clubs and volunteers are doing phenomenal work and that participation is growing all the time. That is putting pressure on facilities in clubs across all sports. We just discussed the great growth in female participation. The latter is adding significantly to the pressure on facilities. That is why it is really important that we continue to invest really strongly. In this round, it is important to recognise that all sports and all clubs need support. We are also assessing where the needs are particularly acute. In the ongoing review of the community sports facilities fund, we are targeting support at the relevant areas. There is an acknowledgement that there is phenomenal work being done. As Deputy Dolan said, it came across very clearly at the meeting in Tuam that when we invest in the community sports fund, the impact is phenomenal. The value in terms of how people contribute, the voluntary effort made and the development of facilities is exceptional as well. There is not a current cost to the State, but we get a wonderful dividend. By investing in the community sports facility fund, there is a great participation benefit in the community and all that goes with it in terms of building communities. We also see health and social benefits coming out of it. The Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, and I will be engaging with our colleagues across the Government to try to make sure that this round is as strong as it possibly can be. As I travel throughout the country, I am engaging with as many clubs as possible. Our message to them in the meantime is to be prepared and to consider where they can develop their clubs in a way that will best serve them such that they can be prepared for making applications to the next round over the summer.

I thank the Minister of State for the clarification on the timelines. One of the sports that has suffered over the years is swimming, particularly in the context of underinvestment in infrastructure and swimming pools. We previously discussed the gap analysis that was prepared and funded by the Department. One of the issues raised in that report was about the model for delivery. We have been talking about the clubs applying, but, of course, that does not deliver swimming pools. Swim Ireland had talked about an alternative hybrid model. In the past it would have been done by local authorities. Has the Minister of State met with Swim Ireland to discuss alternative methods for delivering and running swimming pools? I will make the case, as I have done before, for the Ratoath municipal district in Meath, which is underserved with swimming pools.

I appreciate everything the Minister of State said. One thing that needs to be made crystal clear to clubs this year is the promotion of female participation. I do not think we give it enough attention. We have to make sure that any club that is offering sport to males and females has to offer equal opportunities, equal access and equal participation. In many different sports clubs right across Galway East, I am seeing how much female participation has grown and how much young women are becoming involved. The competition is fierce in our schools, our clubs and everywhere else. A marker has to be laid down in this sports capital programme that clubs which do not give equal access to women will not get equal funding.

I fully support Deputy Dolan's remarks regarding the importance of female participation. However, we also need to take account of socio-economic disadvantage. Sports, such as boxing and football, are great at enabling social cohesion, bringing people on a path which will make sure that they have a fulfilling future in terms of youth diversion and so on. That is why I am particularly keen to support the likes of Collinstown FC in my constituency, which needs access to an all-weather pitch. On nine weekends of this football year, pitches have not been playable because of the weather. This underlines the importance of all-weather pitches. Local authorities and ETBs have a really important role to play in the context of looking at their suite of strategic assets and considering how they can make them available to teams across the constituency. That is something we should plan for and incorporate in this round of sports capital funding in order to ensure that those State agencies buy in and make these facilities available. It is important to support clubs like Collinstown that are performing a very important social function as well as an integrative function when it comes to bringing boys and girls into sport.

On what Deputy O'Rourke said, we know that there are particular challenges with access to swimming pool facilities across the country. That is why the Government provided €100,000 to Swim Ireland to compile the needs analysis report. I have met representatives from the organisation to discuss how we can step that out now. We now know where the challenges are, and we need to decide how we can best respond to them. Clubs and organisations will be able to apply to the community sports facilities fund for funding for pools, but, obviously, new pool development goes far beyond the scale of what is available in terms of the caps that are in place. That is something we are considering. We will continue to engage with Swim Ireland in order to try to see how we can best address this matter. I agree with Deputy Dolan that female participation is absolutely essential for all clubs. We have seen wonderful work happening within clubs as a result of the fact that we have seen exceptional growth in female participation. Over the course of the past ten years, under the national sports policy, we have seen participation generally grow from 42% of adults participating in sport every week to 49%. We have also seen the gender gap between men and women who participate in sport every week close from a gap of 4.5% down to 2% now. That has been down to the wonderful work happening in clubs. However, we have to recognise that the wonderful growth we are seeing in women's participation in sport in particular, but also across the board, is putting pressure on facilities. That is why it is really important that we invest and put a strong package together for the next round to back clubs in the context of the really exceptional work they are doing. I thank Deputy Shane Moynihan for the representations on behalf of clubs in his area. I agree with the point he made on the collaboration and synergies by local authorities, ETBs and schools with local clubs. That is something we want to encourage and promote as part of the next round. If we can develop facilities that can be used by schools and clubs, we will get an exceptional dividend from that investment. The Deputy's point about Astroturf and artificial pitches is more relevant than ever. They make exceptional use of limited space. We have seen, particularly with the weather we have had in the past couple of months, that the space can be used every week. Grass-based pitches have meant that many have not been able to participate over the past couple of months. That will be a challenge, going forward, that we will have to work to try to address through investment.