Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps the Minister can outline in his reply the percentage of the moneys which were not allocated and where that funding was spent, or indeed whether that unspent funding was held back. Will there be an opportunity for people to avail of that funding? After this session a number of representatives from the various minority sporting bodies will address us. It would be advantageous if the Minister and the Minister of State could outline specifically how much of the sports capital programme funding was spent on minority sporting bodies. Those bodies will speak later today about the financial challenges they face, and it would be helpful if we knew how much of the most recent sports capital programme was allocated to them.

The large-scale sports capital infrastructure programme was mentioned. The standard reply I have received in parliamentary questions in the past is that it will happen in the next number of months. Can the Minister or Minister of State be a little bit more specific about what "the next number of months" means? It seems to be a moveable feast. The Minister and Minister of State have said that the next round of sports allocations will be open this year, but will there be an allocation of funds this year or will it simply be opened this year with allocated funding to follow in early 2019?

I welcome the fact that the Minister is touring the constituencies and meeting with sporting bodies. Can I suggest that he should advertise it in a little bit more detail? When he came to my constituency, I was unaware that he was visiting, as was another Deputy. It just so happened that two opposition Deputies were unaware of what was going on, but of course there were no political reasons for that because there is no politics involved in sports capital programmes. Perhaps, just to be helpful, it would be courteous to drop a note to the Deputies who represent the constituencies. They too work with sporting bodies and they might be able to encourage more people to meet with the Minister and see for themselves how open and transparent the system is.