Charlie McConalogue

I thank Deputy Boland for her question. I know she is very committed to the development of a swimming pool in Balbriggan. Further to a specific action in the 2024 national swimming strategy and enabled with funding from my own Department, Swim Ireland was commissioned to carry out an in-depth analysis of swimming pool provision across the country. This examined the condition and age of facilities …

I accept that. I know there is a particular challenge in the north Dublin area in relation to swimming pool availability. The gap analysis report certainly identifies that. We are considering that gap analysis report at the moment to get a sense of the scale of the challenge and to assess how those challenges can be matched by our current funding streams, including the community sports facilities …

I thank the Deputy for her ongoing advocacy and for identifying the challenges and the need for swimming pool facilities, which mean that everyone can avail of sports and that we do not have long waiting lists. I look forward to continuing to work and engage with her on this with a view to identifying opportunities to invest to make sure that projects such as the one in Fingal can be moved forward…

I thank Deputy Ward for his question. National governing bodies of sport, such as the Football Association of Ireland, are independent, autonomous bodies responsible for the governance of their own sports, including the organisation of sporting fixtures, whether in domestic or international competitions. The Government has no role in deciding who plays who in international sports. The FAI is with…

The Deputy made the comparison with Russia in his contribution. To tease that out, the Russian exclusion from sporting events was a decision that was made by UEFA, the sporting body. It blocked and barred Russia from participating in competitions as did FIFA. The footballing body decided to do that as well. As we well know, in the European Union at political level, we have sanctions imposed on Rus…

From a political point of view Ireland and the Irish Government has led out internationally in relation to the atrocities we have seen happen in Palestine as part of the conflict and in terms of providing leadership and trying to bring about a peaceful settlement to the conflict. We have set the agenda in many ways at European and international levels in relation to the approach and stance we took…

The FAI is an independent organisation working within the footballing and governance structures internationally. UEFA has not prevented Israel from taking part in competitions such as happened in the case of Russia. The FAI is engaging with An Garda Síochána in relation to the appropriate policing arrangements for the game.

I thank the Deputy for the question. I know the sports facilities fund is something he is very committed to in relation to supporting clubs in his local area. In line with the previous rounds of the community sport facilities fund, a review of the current funding round has been undertaken and will be finalised shortly. It is anticipated that the objective of the next round will particularly target…

Particularly in large urban areas such as Dublin city land can be a real challenge. That is why with the last round but particularly this upcoming round we are looking to encourage educational institutions as well as local authorities to work with clubs to make joint applications. For example, where we can get a school that has some land available, where facilities can be improved and the childre…

I have engaged on this and will meet local authorities across Dublin in advance of the round opening, with the objective of making sure that they are being as proactive as possible. I know from visiting a number of clubs and working with the Deputy in his own area that he and other representatives working with him are trying to ensure that the local authority is prioritising this as well. There ar…

The programme for Government commits to supporting local authorities in the acquisition of new lands for parks and playing pitches to help to build liveable communities. While neither of my Department's sports capital funding programmes, the community sport facilities fund, CSFF, or the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF, provide for the acquisition of land, I would be supportive of loca…

We need to do more on this. Certainly, with the next round of the community sport facilities fund opening over the course of this summer, we want to try to do as much as we can in that short timeframe to encourage collaboration between schools, local authorities and clubs. We also have to look at how we can do more to identify land and communal grounds where municipal-type facilities can be develo…

The key thing is that we have to make the biggest impact we can with what is available, and also look to grow what is available too. There are opportunities in many communities where there could be land available through schools and local authorities to collaborate with clubs. That is a message that we are getting out as strongly as we can with regard to this new round to encourage that collaborat…

I thank Deputy Ó Cearúil for his question and his ongoing advocacy on behalf of the post office network and its importance for local communities. The post office network is a key component of the economic and social infrastructure throughout the country. On the back of that, the programme for Government states that the Government will continue to provide the nationwide network of post offices wit…

My understanding is that, since the start of the year, the funding is being paid from An Post to postmasters. If there are any particular instances where that is not the case, I will be happy to have them followed up. That is my understanding of the situation based on the briefing I have received on it. An Post is due to get €15 million, which is an increase from €10 million last year. This requir…

There was very strong engagement between the Irish Postmasters Union and An Post in relation to agreeing the criteria for how the funding will be distributed. An agreement on its distribution, including the criteria around that for each of the five years, has been finalised and is now in place for postmasters. That Government commitment, under which we have increased our funding to the post office…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 15, 16, 18, 19, 27, 33, 39, 40 and 56 together. I thank Deputies McGrath and Cleere for their questions. The programme for Government commits to continuing to support the funding of sports capital projects and assessing the distribution of funding in order to maximise participation in all sports at community and national level. My Department's Statement of Strateg…

I thank Deputies McGrath, Cleere and Ó Murchú. With regard to Deputy McGrath's question on the large-scale infrastructure fund, we have had two rounds of that fund so far, in 2019 and 2024. The national development plan provides for one round to be conducted and opened during this Government term. We expect it will be a couple of years from now, towards the latter end of the Government, because th…

I very much welcome the opportunity to address the House this evening on matters relating to football, the most popular team sport in Ireland. Football can take us from the absolute peaks of delight, such as when Troy Parrott's toe-poke delivered the miracle of Budapest, to the absolute depths of disappointment that we all know too well too recently. It brings whole communities together. It provid…

Deputy Ó Murchú is out of time.

I start by acknowledging and thanking Deputy Duncan Smith for requesting these statements. We have seen three and a half hours of statements and a really good, positive debate. The spirit in which the contributions have been made stand in very stark contrast to many of the other debates we have on the floor of the House. That reflects the fact that sport and football in particular brings out the …

I thank the Deputy. As she knows, my Department operates two sports capital funding programmes, namely, the community sports facilities fund, CSFF, and the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF. Both programmes are administered via an online customer portal, the online sports capital register, or OSCAR as it will be known to anyone who has made an application and been responsible in their c…

I agree. It is certainly tracking to be in place to be able to run the new sports capital funding round on that system as well. That is certainly the position we want to be in. I have met very regularly with the team and we have been leading out on this to make sure the progress has been tracked and that there has been a prioritisation put on it within the Department. The work is progressing well…

There is a project management team in place and the different steps involved in the process include the transfer of data from the previous OSCAR system onto the new system. The testing of it will be part of the process too. A lot of work has gone into the initial part in terms of the building of it to be able to take on applications. I have been liaising with the team very closely on it. There is …

Over a quarter of a billion euro was allocated to 3,048 community sports clubs and facilities in 2024 from the 2023 round of the community sport facilities fund, CSFF, representing the largest-ever investment in sports facilities in communities across the country. The Deputy’s question referred to the Oscar Traynor centre, where €509,182 was allocated to the centre under the CSFF in the period in…