Charlie McConalogue

I thank Deputy Wall for raising this matter today. I welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter with Members of the House on behalf of the Minister for Transport and to provide an update on this pilot scheme in County Kildare. The Minister for Transport has responsibility for overall policy and Exchequer funding in relation to the national cycle network. The national cycle network was publishe…

Deputy Wall will appreciate that it is critical that we do, and are able to, offer a real alternative to people in different parts of the country to ensure they can walk and travel in a safe environment. This is why there was and is a necessity for pilots such as the Moone to Timolin scheme. I acknowledge that the novel nature of the pilot has caused concerns and frustrations, as have been very cl…

I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this important matter for our county on the floor of the Dáil. I am glad to be taking it on behalf of the Minister for Transport who has been in London since yesterday meeting Cabinet counterparts in the British Government. I have been authorised to take this Topical Issue on his behalf and a number of other Topical Issues on behalf of a number of other Ministers…

Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher and I, along with Deputy Doherty and all the other Oireachtas Members from the county, are at one on this in terms of trying to find a way forward and make sure there are flight times in place that suit and meet the needs of the people of our county. Deputy Doherty will see from the response how this evolved. We both heard at yesterday's meeting that the tender that w…

I thank Deputies Byrne and Guirke for raising this matter this morning. Under section 46 of the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983, the Minister for Culture, Communication and Sport, with the concurrence of the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, approves any superannuation schemes submitted by An Post, including proposals to incr…

I thank Deputies Byrne and Guirke. I have outlined the timelines. While these pension increases were to apply with regard to An Post from 1 January 2025, the agreement relating to the increase was not agreed between the unions and An Post until September 2025. It was only at that point that it was agreed. The agreement went to the Department at the end of October, as has been outlined. Governance …

As people can see from the outline I provided that we have been acting very promptly. I do not believe it could have been done in a shorter timeframe. NewERA had to do its assessment, look at the fund and the request relating to it and make recommendations to the various Ministers. As soon as I got it, I signed off on it. It has gone to the Minister, Deputy Chambers, and I have no doubt he will ac…

I thank Deputy Byrne for the question. I know these are funds she has a strong interest in. As the Deputy knows, my Department operates two capital funding programmes for sport, namely the community sports facilities fund, CSFF, and the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF. Sporting organisations can apply directly for CSFF funding while applications to the LSSIF must be made through eith…

Our objective is to try to make the application process for both the sports facilities fund and the large-scale infrastructure fund as accessible and workable for clubs as possible. Obviously, when it comes to the large-scale infrastructure fund, the grants are of a much more significant scale - into the millions - and there is therefore more involved in the application process. We take on board t…

It is something that we bore in mind. We are aiming at having a new round of the sports capital fund by early summer. We will certainly be taking on board the feedback we receive before then from sports clubs around the country and Deputies on trying to make sure that it is as accessible as possible. I know there have been challenges in the past. The smaller the organisation, the more challenging …

I thank Deputy O'Donoghue for his question on an important issue. As we know, everyone involved in sport in any capacity, regardless of age, should be able to enjoy an experience that is free from any form of abuse. The creation of a culture that promotes the safety and welfare of all involved must be at the core of the operations of all of our national governing bodies of sport. Sport Ireland, as…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. It is crucial that everyone has a security and safety support network around them to ensure they can safely participate in sport. This takes a lot of effort by our clubs to make sure those structures are in place. It also forms a key part of the Government's work, with Sport Ireland, to ensure support and guidance are provided to NGBs. That is fully expe…

Sport Ireland sets the criteria. It has a strong set of criteria for child safeguarding compliance. It is a compulsory requirement for NGBs and a critical element of NGB funding. These criteria are reviewed twice annually. NGBs are required to submit their child safeguarding statements to Sport Ireland for review. Sport Ireland expects all funded organisations, as does the Government which funds S…

I thought it was the next question, which is in the Deputy's name. I thank Deputy O'Meara very much for raising the matter this evening. We both know that inclusion and diversity in sport are key priorities for this Government. Despite recent progress, there is an enduring participation gap between persons with either a long-term illness or a disability and those without an illness or a disability…

The Deputy is right to focus on it. We have seen progress on the participation of those with a disability in sport but the gap has not narrowed because participation has also increased among the general adult and child populations, for which we can be thankful. The gap has remained, however. It is a particular focus for the Government. We are going to look to see how we can address that gap furthe…

I thank Deputies O'Meara, Byrne and Ó Murchú. The Deputies have put an emphasis on access and support for those with disabilities. The Government is very focused on making progress in this area. Budget 2025 was the first to provide specific disability funding to national governing bodies through Sport Ireland. That was important. We have seen the appointment of a Sport Ireland disability lead, whi…

I thank Deputy O'Meara for raising this and for his advocacy on behalf of clubs in his constituency. As he will know, 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 community sport facilities fund provides grants to assi…

It is certainly my objective and that of the Minister, Deputy O’Donovan, in terms of the next round to make sure that we have it as amenable to clubs as possible and as practical as possible for them to be able to apply. Last time around with the appeals, almost all of the clubs that applied were supported. They were given the opportunity through the appeals process to have any issues corrected. T…

I look forward to seeing Deputy O'Meara in Tipperary. He has been speaking to me about that already. In response to Deputy Byrne, the objective will be to ensure we are looking to see where the need is greatest. We are gathering that information at the moment to make sure that, when the round is announced, it is focusing on the areas of greatest need. Having said that, I think we would all accept…

We are looking at another round then, certainly within the course of this Government, but it is to be decided.

There are two capital funding programmes for sport, namely, the community sports facilities fund, CSFF, and the large scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF. In total, over €1.5 million was allocated to swimming under the 2023 community sports facilities fund round as part of an overall CSFF investment of over €3.7 million in the last ten years. Swimming may also have benefited from allocations to…

I thank the Deputy for raising the gap analysis report. On what we are going to do about it, the first thing we did was to fund that report. We funded Swim Ireland to carry it out because we want to assess what the situation is across the country, what the level of service provision is, what the current infrastructure is like, where the gaps are most acute and what issues there are with existing i…

We will certainly look at all options. We need local authorities to step up and get into this space. It has been a challenging space. It has been challenging for pools to be run profitably. That has seen local authorities shy away and has led to some of the gaps we have. We need to see them step up. Certainly, the Department, working with Swim Ireland and Sport Ireland, will look to try to ensure …

I thank the Deputy for raising this and for his advocacy on behalf of the development of facilities in west Wicklow. He will have heard my previous response in relation to the support available through the community sport facilities fund and the large scale sport infrastructure fund. On Baltinglass, I confirm that no application for funding was received under either the LSSIF or the CSFF for a spo…

In the most recent round of the community sport facilities fund, we saw €7 million allocated to sporting projects across County Wicklow. I know this is a project the Deputy is clear is very much needed and is working closely with Wicklow County Council in relation to it. I am very open to continuing to work with him to see how we can ensure that as we open future rounds of the CSFF this year, and …