2026-07-14

The Department of Culture, Communications and Sport provides funding to the FAI on an annual basis. I understand it is more than €6 million. Can the Minister of State ascertain why 30 acres of land in Glanmire, Cork, which was leased to the FAI by Cork County Council in 2017, has remained idle? What progress has been made by the Department, the FAI and the county council to bring these lands into use for sports activities? Will he make a statement? I am raising this issue because these lands were purchased by Cork County Council more than 25 years ago, when the Cork-Dublin road was being built, and have been vacant since. In 2013 or 2014, the council decided it would lease these 30 acres to the FAI to build a new facility for the development of soccer in the region. The lease was signed in 2017. It is ten years later and not a sod has been turned. I got then Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, to come to Glanmire in 2023 where we met 18 of the sports clubs. As a result of that meeting, the FAI started negotiations again with the county council. My understanding is that they came to an agreement that 12.5 acres would go back to the local soccer club, but despite the fact I wrote to the chief executive of the county council on 5 May, and sent a follow-up letter and made a follow-up phone call, I cannot get a reply from the county council about what is proposed for these lands. My understanding is that the FAI does not intend to use them. Glanmire has a population of more than 20,000. The Minister of State was there recently in Vienna Woods where he met sports organisations to talk about applying for grants. How can they apply for grants if they do not have grounds or planning permission? A Government Department is paying out money to the FAI, which is hoarding this land, and a local authority is sitting on it and not doing anything with it. There are 20,000 people living in Glanmire and 1,000 houses and apartments are being built there at the moment. We have Sarsfields GAA and camogie clubs, Glanmire GAA club, the football club, soccer clubs and rugby clubs. There are a lot of clubs there that do not have adequate access to facilities and there is not even planning permission for the 30 acres. If it were to start in the morning, it would still be a good 12 months down the road. The Department is still giving out money to the FAI and not calling it to account for getting the land from a Government agency, the local authority, and leaving it to sit idle, while clubs are now refusing to take in new members because they do not have capacity for them. It is time for the Department to step in. There is an athletics club in north Cork which got all the clubs together and they got €2 million in grants, and rightly so, because they got everyone together. The clubs in Glanmire have tried the same thing and still we are not making any progress on this. In August 2023, then Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, was there. It is now three years later and not one thing has happened in those three years, despite the fact the issue was raised publicly and followed up by me and other public representatives. The Department can hold the FAI to account in this case. Why has it taken three years to make any progress? Even if it is possible to put it out to clubs for tender, that will take six months and then it will have to go through the planning process. It is time for the Department to intervene and deal with this issue.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The programme for Government commits to maintaining sports funding to get more people participating in all levels of sport, particularly targeting cohorts in society where there are lower than average participation levels. The Department operates two capital funding programmes for sport: the community sport facilities fund, CSFF, and the large scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF. The first allocations under the LSSIF opened in 2018 and were announced in 2020, with €86.5 million awarded to 33 projects. Additional funding of €37.5 million was allocated to 27 of these projects in December 2023, bringing the total awarded under that LSSIF round to €124 million. Under the 2018 round, announced in 2020, €2,025,000 was provisionally allocated to the Munster centre of excellence in Glanmire. The proposal involved the development of grass pitches, an Astroturf facility, flood-lighting and dressing rooms. The Football Association of Ireland wrote to my Department in 2023 stating that it no longer intended to proceed with the LSSIF-funded centre of excellence in Glanmire. According to the FAI, the decision not to proceed with the proposal was due to the fact that the original proposal no longer represented the greatest return on investment for the parties involved. Since then, there have been regular updates from the FAI to my Department including, most recently, an update on the progression of a revised proposal, which will involve University College Cork. In May, the FAI forwarded a draft business case for the revised proposal for a centre of excellence and my Department reverted to the FAI with observations on 21 June. It is anticipated that the final business case will be submitted shortly to my Department. In relation to the site in Glanmire, my Department has been informed that the property has now been leased to Riverstown Football Club by Cork County Council. I also understand that Riverstown Football Club is working with Cork County Council to develop a multisport facility at the site. Of the total €297 million allocated under LSSIF to date, €96 million was awarded to soccer projects that are either directly sponsored by the FAI or incorporate soccer elements. Six projects under the first round of the LSSIF were allocated just under €12 million. Under the 2024 LSSIF funding announcement, €84 million was awarded to a further six soccer projects. This includes projects such as Dalymount Park and the Sligo Rovers stadium development. My current focus and that of the Department is on ensuring project delivery under the first two rounds of the LSSIF. This process will inform any decisions regarding the timing of a future round. The community sports facilities fund will also open over the course of the month. The previous round funded over 3,000 projects. Since 2000, €134 million has been allocated to 259 projects in County Cork under the community sports facilities fund. The most recent round saw €30 million allocated to 347 sporting projects in Cork. We will now be opening a new round over the course of the summer. I share the Deputy's desire to ensure this site is put to sporting use very promptly. The information my Department has is that Riverstown FC has a lease with Cork County Council. The club is working with the county council to develop a multisport facility at the site. The FAI is working with University College Cork to put a facility in place with the university as opposed to making a written proposal. I want to see that come to fruition. There is very intensive engagement between them and my Department. We will be insisting that the project is moved on if the funding for it is to be retained. The issue of this site has been raised by Deputy Burke and by Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan previously. I am very happy to work with them to see this particular site at Glanmire made available to the local community for sporting use.

I am absolutely astonished at that reply. The county council told councillors that it was leasing 12.5 acres to Riverstown FC rather than the full site. What the FAI is telling the Minister is totally different. State agencies, the Minister of State's Department, the county council and the FAI, which gets funding from the Department, are all involved and I cannot get a clear answer. I am getting one answer from the Department, which it is getting from the FAI, and we are getting a different answer from Cork County Council. This is State land that is lying idle. The population of Glanmire is growing at a phenomenal rate. One thousand new houses are being built. The Minister of State's Department agreed to provide funding to the FAI back in 2017 or 2018. This was never taken up by the FAI. That is not the Department's fault but the FAI was not asked any questions about bringing this land back into use for sporting activities in Glanmire. There are 30 acres lying idle. Not a sod has been turned and no planning application has been made. We are now getting mixed messages about what is actually going on. I am not happy with this answer. The Minister of State can say that to the FAI. I also ask his Department to get clarification directly from the county council. The Minister of State is involved in developing sports facilities. Most of the population that will use this facility live in the city. There should therefore be a joint approach to developing these lands between the Department, the county council and the city council. We need them. Soccer clubs and GAA clubs are turning people away. Schools are under pressure. Some of the schools down there have over 1,000 students. They have some facilities but not facilities at the scale they would like. I ask that the Department now give priority to this issue. There are 1,000 houses being built. We are collecting planning fees and all sorts of contributions for these developments to go ahead but we are not providing any facilities of any description. Both the Department and the local authorities are guilty of not dealing with this issue.

The objective of the Department of sport is to fund projects to deliver sporting outcomes and increase participation. In my previous response, I outlined the number of projects that have been funded across County Cork. Under the most recent round of the community sports facilities fund, the figure was 347. There have been just over 2,000 over the past 20 years or more. I will certainly seek clarity on the situation regarding this land. The information I have is that Cork County Council has leased the land to Riverstown Football Club. I will seek further clarity on that. The use of the land is obviously primarily a matter for Cork County Council to decide upon. From our engagement with the FAI, I am clear that the funding that was initially allocated in 2020 is not to be used on this particular site. It is going to be utilised on a different site in conjunction with University College Cork. We are going to facilitate that as long as it happens. We are intensively engaged with the FAI to make sure that funding delivers new football facilities that can be of benefit to people who want to participate in and enjoy football in Cork. We want to see that happen. I absolutely agree that this site should be used for sporting activity. The information I have is that it is being leased to Riverstown FC, which is working with Cork County Council to develop a multisport facility. I will certainly be following up to clarify the points the Deputy has raised here this evening. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan has also raised the issue. Everyone within the local area wants to see this land utilised for sporting activity. As Minister of State with responsibility for sport, it is also something I want to see. I will certainly work with the Deputy to do anything we can to see this moved on.