Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

When we were given the figures for the sports grants, I assessed them against the population to see how they compare. I accept that this is a crude way of doing it. What factors are these figures measured against? New communities that consist of nothing more than a collection of houses will not have the same ability to deliver as communities that are able to add to what is already there. When these figures are being drawn up, is the level of need analysed or measured, or are these decisions made purely on the basis of who comes forward to make an application? The cities seem to do quite poorly when these grants are allocated. When the figures are set out on a per capita basis, Dublin, Cork and Limerick are all at the lower end of the scale. A similar point can be made about some counties that have had recent growth. Although Dublin definitely benefits when funds are given to national bodies like the Irish Amateur Boxing Association, the benefits of that expenditure are felt more widely. It strikes me that such allocations should be catalogued separately, at least in part, in the interests of fair play in the distribution of these moneys. What are these allocations matched against? How is the level of need captured?