Eamonn Coghlan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. Coming from a background in sport it would be appropriate for me to raise the issue of sport as the transport issues have been raised.

It is welcome that funding for sport has been maintained this year. We look forward and welcome the new legislation, Sport Ireland Bill 2014 to merge the Irish Sports Council and the National Sports Campus Development Authority. We welcome the third round of sports capital grants. The Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ring overwhelmingly recognise the role of volunteers in sports. The Minister states that when allocating funds for the next round, he will look at funding for the smaller organisation in particular. I do not believe that smaller organisations will be catered for because they must compete for funding with the GAA, the FAI, Rugby, the mainline sports that attract the larger numbers, have the sporting facilities and who continuously get repeat grants, not just in the first and second round but going over many years.

I took photographs last Sunday, which I can show the Minister now, of an event in which 300 children participated in a field with shared changing facilities provided for both boys and girls in a 40 ft container. There were no showers or anything like that provided. I have estimated that volunteer coaches in this organisation put in an estimated 5,000 hours a year coaching four times a week in some disadvantaged areas in west Dublin yet their application for the sport grants have been rejected over a number of years because they did not meet the criteria. In order for this sports organisation to meet the criteria the club would have to spend thousands of euro on architects and engineers to try to get their case across the line, yet it comes down to the whim of one individual in the country council who does not like it. In my view this is because he is more in favour of a sport in which he is involved.

I have a question concerning the new round of funding. If the Minister is serious about helping the smaller organisations, can he change the criteria for grants so that the decision on an application for funding is not just based on what is filled out in a form but might be based on a visual inspection together with the history of the organisation and the contribution it is making to the local area?

Many of these volunteer coaches are getting somewhat disenchanted and discouraged. If they walked away, hundreds if not thousands of children would be lost to sport, now and in the future, and would not be able to avail of the social benefits enjoyed by those who participate in sport. I would like the criteria to be changed. Perhaps an advice centre could be made available to smaller organisations that need support when they are making their applications.