Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not think so. It just comes out of the Department's administration budget. I think the €2.2 million to which the Deputy referred is the Department's administration costs rather than anything else. I do not think it is in any way recurrent or has to be done again.

I share her enthusiasm for the indoor arena; it is money well spent. It is obviously a large sum and we have to find it. It is one of our priorities in the mid-term capital review and I think we are likely to be successful in that particular mission. It is so important. To leave something like that incomplete would be very difficult, particularly because in many ways, when it comes to sports, one gets real bang for one's buck in terms of the community and what the Deputy rightly identifies as volunteerism. It is an extraordinary activity which prompts so much volunteerism. So much of this is actually not paid for by anybody, it is done by people's individual efforts and so costs the State nothing. Every penny spent prompts more volunteerism too, so one gets additional value for money. The Deputy can take it that we will be pushing very hard to get that indoor arena going.