I acknowledge the importance of the issues raised during the debate and the legitimate interests of people seeking legal recognition. The Government recognises that legal recognition for non-binary people is a significant issue that deserves careful and serious consideration. We also recognise the importance of ensuring that people born intersex are properly protected from discrimination. The question before us, howe…
TDs / Charlie McConalogue
Charlie McConalogue
Minister of State at the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
0
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
105,063
words spoken in the chamber
105,063 as a minister, 0 as a TD
390
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
From the Dáil chamber only: committee meetings are not in this archive.
The record holds no parliamentary questions from them in this Dáil.
Month by month
Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Contributions to debates 317 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Contributions |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 0 |
| March 2025 | 10 |
| April 2025 | 2 |
| May 2025 | 17 |
| June 2025 | 17 |
| July 2025 | 5 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 0 |
| October 2025 | 6 |
| November 2025 | 15 |
| December 2025 | 14 |
| January 2026 | 25 |
| February 2026 | 13 |
| March 2026 | 23 |
| April 2026 | 3 |
| May 2026 | 31 |
| June 2026 | 55 |
| July 2026 | 7 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 11 |
| October 2026 | 63 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 263 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Donegal 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister of State at the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media 29 January 2025 to 1 June 2025
- office Minister of State at the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport 2 June 2025 to now
We all join this evening in sending our best wishes to the Minister, who obviously cannot be here. I am taking questions on his behalf. We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back here as soon as possible.
The Budget 2027 allocation to the Department is set out at a programme level in the expenditure report published by the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform…
Across Government over the course of this past budget, a very strong effort was made to ensure value for money across all Departments and to ensure that overall Government spending is maintained at a maximum of 6%. Regarding my Department's funding for 2027, when one takes out the exceptional items from last year, which included the EU Presidency, which had significant funding requirements in preparation for this six…
The basic income for the arts was a really significant departure in terms of budgeting for next year because it is the first time that we have a permanent basic income for the arts scheme, which is really significant. It is very significant for the arts across the country and is recognised across Europe as the first scheme of its type. Across the rest of the Department, within that overall increase of 4%, we have sou…
I propose to take Questions Nos. 117 and 119 together. The overall budget allocation to the Department for 2027 was set out in the public expenditure report published on budget day. The Minister and I set out further details at our press conference on Wednesday, 7 October. As was outlined by the Minister at that time, the allocations to each public body or initiative under the Department's remit were based on the tot…
I thank Deputies Hearne and Byrne. As I laid out in my response, there is no doubt that RTÉ is progressing with reforms even though the pace of reform has not been as initially set out. We would like to see those progressed at pace. As I also laid out in my response, €260 million was sought as part of the budgetary process but that was not possible given the overall context of the budget challenges we had. The pace o…
I have laid out very clearly that there were two aspects to the budgetary position: first, the challenges in relation to the overall budgetary envelope; and, second, the pace of delivery of reform by RTÉ. The Government would like to see the three-year agreement made with RTÉ honoured by both sides. Obviously, that is contingent on the delivery of those reforms and the pace of those reforms. The Minister, Deputy O'Do…
I thank Deputy Byrne for her question and I also thank her for her good wishes to the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan. The large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF, was established under the national sports policy to provide Exchequer support for large-scale sports facility projects and to address what had been up to that point a significant gap in public funding of projects of scale.
The total allocation made under …
So far we have had funding and grants committed to 68 projects. From a Government point of view, we want to see those projects move forward. It is the role of either the national sporting bodies or the local authorities that have made those applications to move them forward. The officials in my Department are working with them to try to make sure that they are expedited and that they get into delivery. We want to see…
We are meeting the demand-----
-----and funding every project that has come forward.
It is not the Government that is delivering the projects on the ground, though; it is mainly local authorities or national sporting bodies. We are working with them to press that they actually move on and deliver them. The projects the Government is moving forward and directly delivering include, for example, two projects on the national sports campus, the development of the new velodrome and badminton centre and the…
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…
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 th…
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 t…
I propose to take Questions Nos. 121 and 128 together. I thank Deputy Boland. As the Deputy well knows, the national broadband plan is the Government's initiative to deliver high-speed broadband to all premises in Ireland, both rural and urban, in cases where they did not previously have connectivity. In addition, Ireland's digital connectivity strategy, which was published in December 2022, sets out a number of targ…
I know that this is an issue that the Deputy has raised on an ongoing basis here. We are in a process. The many parts of the country, including some urban areas, which did not have any commercial providers is rapidly being filled out by infrastructure build out by National Broadband Ireland. Certainly, I have had experience of that in the home that I live in and getting broadband for the first time.
I accept the poi…
I accept that, Deputy. I think we all agree that we have seen immense progress over the last three to four years in terms of the national broadband plan. Work is ongoing, has been very successful, delivered ahead of time and below budget. There is no doubt that we do have a situation now where many premises that had little to no broadband in the past, in isolated areas, thankfully have great broadband and, in some in…
I join in congratulating Maynooth on its great success and wish it well in the finals. I was delighted to be invited by the Deputy at the end of last year to visit Maynooth GAA club and open one of its newest facilities. I congratulate the club not only on its success on the field but also on its success in developing the club off the field. It is a wonderful example of an exceptional sports club and GAA club in its …
It is something we will take into consideration in the funding. There are two issues. There are areas which are under pressure in terms of growing population that do not necessarily have the facilities to match it. That is something that will be a consideration. There are also sports that might not have been traditionally successful or have not applied in significant numbers for grants. That is something we will also…
I am sure the Deputy would agree with this point. I have travelled much of the country over the past year and rarely have I gone to a club in either an urban or rural setting that is not under pressure for additional and improved facilities. That is a reflection of the wonderful work the volunteers are doing within those clubs in bringing more and more people in to participate, especially in relation to the great gro…
I know that the Deputy has had a strong interest in this fund and has been waiting for it to open. I am glad to outline the details. He will have seen that we published the information guide for the 2026 round of the community sport facilities fund, CSFF, in the last couple of weeks. The 2026 round will be administered on a new grant management system, SPRAOI, which opened for registrations on 28 September. SPRAOI op…
I congratulate Ballincollig on winning the intermediate hurling final. It was a wonderful Sunday and a wonderful weekend with a number of county finals taking place including in my own county. Listening on Monday morning to the "Morning Ireland" sports review collage of the different county finals and finishes across the country shows what a wonderful weekend it was. It is good to see the Deputy here today after Ball…
I join Deputy Burke in wishing the Glen well. I think it was its first time in ten years being county champion. I congratulate the club.
The Deputy's point is very valid. In large urban and developing areas in his constituency and other parts of the country, we have to make sure we pay attention to that in relation to the round. That is why we developed the new tier, tier two, of a maximum of €750,000 to try to work…
Under the 2018 round of the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, a total of €124 million was awarded to 33 projects between initial allocations in early 2020 and subsequent top-ups to projects in 2023.
Kilkenny Local Authorities Leisure Complex Limited received an allocation of €2.17 million in respect of The Watershed under LSSIF 2018 between initial allocation and top-up funding. In early 2025, the local authori…