120. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport the position regarding plans to develop new all-weather pitches across north Dublin, including the locations being considered; the funding allocated and the expected timelines for delivery; and whether additional funding will be made available to meet the growing demand from local sports clubs. [74087/26]
Debates / 20 October 2026 / Other Questions
Tuesday 20 October 2026Sports Facilities
9 contributions, as the Official Report records them.
Across north Dublin, clubs are reaching out to me with difficulties with all-weather pitches. At the start of the year we saw one of the worst wet seasons we have had. I have heard from girls, boys and coaches. All matches have been cancelled due to north Dublin's lack of all-weather pitches. I know more has gone in and I welcome the work of Dublin City Council parks and local reps on the recently opened facility in Stardust Memorial Park, but there is a lot more to be done. I ask for an update on the plans.
I know this is something Deputy Heneghan is passionate about and I was glad to visit some local clubs with him in the last few months. I look forward to seeing clubs progress under the next round of the community sport facilities fund.
While neither of my Department's sports capital funding programmes, which are the community sport facilities fund and the large-scale infrastructure fund, provides for the acquisition of land, which is something we have discussed in the House previously, we certainly support local authorities in acquiring those lands and working with clubs, particularly for the development of AstroTurf and all-weather surfaces. I think we would all agree, particularly given the last winter we had, that it is really important we develop more of those facilities across the country.
On 2 October, my Department published the information guide for the 2026 round of the community sport facilities fund. That guide highlights the recognised need for all-weather field sport facilities to provide certainty of games and training opportunities. I hope now to see local authorities and sports national governing bodies and clubs submitting applications in this regard under the new regional tier 2 grant category, which has been introduced on a pilot basis.
The new sport facilities fund grant portal, SPRAOI, opened for applications yesterday, Monday, and will remain open until the end of February.
The national development plan provides a significant level of capital investment for sport for the period 2027 to 2030, with over €500 million allocated for that period. Specific allocations for each year, including for the community sport facilities fund, were published as part of the Revised Estimate Volume.
In line with previous rounds, it is proposed to assess the level of demand following the closure of applications at the end of February. Following on from that assessment, my Department will engage with the Department of public expenditure in the context of the Department's capital envelope under the national development plan to work to ensure that we can fund as many new projects across the country as possible and, particularly, that we can see more AstroTurf and all-weather facilities developed in the Deputy's area as well as in other parts of the country.
I welcome the new community sport facilities fund, especially that large-scale grant, but the real challenge for community clubs is when they lack the resources or the lease to apply for it. I know the Minister of State has acknowledged that. What I would really like for my constituency is a clear list of all the proposed or local authority-proposed all-weather pitches in north Dublin and the funding allocation and delivery timeline for each project. Perhaps Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council and all sporting bodies, working together, could identify these suitable sites and we could have schools, football clubs and GAA clubs working together with disability organisations and older people's organisations. A lot of community groups can avail of these sports facilities. Games have all been called off. I know there were issues with Part 8 applications in some of the councils, but it is not really acceptable. We talk constantly in this House about preventing crime when one of the best things we can do is allow young kids to play sports. What we need to do is get them to play sports, and to get them to play sports they need pitches. All the games are called off.
I recently met with the CEO of Dublin City Council, Richard Shakespeare, and some of his key team to discuss the community sport facilities fund round in order that we can all work collectively together to try to make sure that local authorities, clubs and national sporting bodies are working closely together. I have travelled the country over the last year to meet with clubs to get an assessment of the challenges they face and to get their feedback on recent rounds of the community sport facilities fund to make sure that we are meeting their needs as best as possible as to how we structure this round. I refer to two cases in particular in relation to the €550,000 regional application maximum fund, which is available to clubs where clubs work together, and the new tier we have introduced, which has a maximum of €750,000. A local authority or a national sporting body has to apply for that. What we are trying to achieve there is that collaboration and those multisport facilities coming together, facilitated by local authorities and national sporting organisations.
Ideal for that is the likes of large-scale all-weather surfaces where everyone can benefit from working together across different sports.
I welcome that. We have the volunteers, the players, the demand and now we need the pitches.
Hear, hear.
North Dublin has produced some of the best footballers, and we have had this debate before with the Minister of State about where the best footballers are from, but if we are going to continue to do that we need pitches.
It is really hard for myself and all the other local representatives for north Dublin to meet local volunteers, parents who get up early for their kid's match, to have it called off. I welcome the work that has been done and thank the Minister of State for visiting and meeting with the clubs. However, the wet season is coming along. I know that some of the local authorities have been given facilities to take preventative measures and drain pitches in acceptable ways. I ask that the Minister of State ensures that his Department can follow up the cases that I will raise, and have raised continuously, as it is very frustrating to see young boys and young girls indoors on their phones and playing PlayStation when they should be out playing sports.
I agree on the immense power of sport in all communities and, indeed, the great value we have from sporting clubs in terms of being the heartbeat of communities. The strength of the clubs very much reflects the strength of communities. It is our objective now to have as many applications and as many new facilities through this next round.
I particularly encourage the following to happen this time. We have designed the new community sports facilities scheme in a way to encourage schools to collaborate with clubs. In cases where it is possible, if schools have the ground to develop a facility and if a club can work with the school to develop a schoolground, where it is available to schoolchildren during to the day and to the community in the evenings and at the weekend, then that is the ideal in terms of the best synergy for public investment and the participation that comes from that. That is something we are looking to encourage this time around as well.
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Debate record: official record, fetched 20 Oct 2026
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