Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will focus on the micro and sports capitation grants as opposed to the macro scene with Senator Feighan. We welcome the Minister's positive deliberations today. My concern is the stop-go approach to the allocation of sports capital grants. I acknowledge that the previous Government re-introduced the scheme, which was very welcome during the hard times. However, 2017 followed a lull of over two years from the last allocations and many clubs have had to sit on the fence and wait before they could move on with their developments. It has already gone beyond a year before the allocations for the 2018 scheme will come into play. There is a stop-go approach and no consistency in the roll-out of the scheme. Other Government schemes, irrespective of whether the money is spent from the previous year's allocation, are still subject to announcements of new allocations for the following year on a regular basis, i.e. every 12 months. Here we are not too sure yet whether the 2018 scheme will be opened this year.

What we see is forward spending of the budget. To be fair to the Minister, he put in an extra €30 million, but that is from the budget going forward. Will the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, give him the money going forward again and when we have our budget in October? That is the concern I have, namely, consistency. The Minister of State, Deputy Griffin, has already stated he is doing another review. I am trying to be positive here. Good leeway is being given in the allocation of grants. Mention has been made of minority sports. I do not play golf myself, but I am delighted that golf clubs have benefitted given that they have been through the financial woes of the past decade also. Some of them have barely stayed open. Golf is as good a recreational sport as jogging or walking.

Could we provide a separate mechanism to provide funding to schools in disadvantaged areas? Some schools can match funding but could we provide more funding to a school with lower-income families attending which is looking for an astroturf pitch? It might get 80% of the grant, for example, as opposed to 50%. The evidence is the private school has more access to funding. Matching funding is a big thing.

I welcome the fact the Minister is here and that there is good news. My problem is the stop-go approach. This needs to be put in place on a regular basis. One can see that €100 million will not go far. It will be spent in two years, not four.