Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has said that is all that club applied for and that it got what it applied for. How could the club apply for anything else when it has no facilities? This is where the sports capital grant falls down. An audit has not been carried out and that is one of my suggestions for the total overhaul of this sports programme. It has never been carried out. We have waited two years to get this funding. There was ample time in those two years to carry out an audit of disadvantaged areas that were without facilities and that have nothing. People must walk up the road pushing a lawnmower to cut a rented field but the Minister does not see the inequality in that. It took two years to get to this stage. Why could it not have been done properly? Why could an audit of every area lacking in facilities not have been done ? Why could those areas not have been targeted?

They will never be at the same level as some of the clubs and private schools that got the funding but they could be given some sort of advantage for their communities. I read somewhere that the Minister boasted that over 50% of the funding went to disadvantaged areas and schools. Am I correct in saying that when the Minister says "over 50%", that was actually 50.7%? Will he clarify whether I am correct? If that 50.7% is a boast, I cannot figure out what planet the Minister and his officials are on to think that is either socially or morally justified. It beggars belief. The Minister is reinforcing disadvantage and privilege. It has never been so blatant as in this allocation. I cannot figure out why the Minister does not get it. The public see and are outraged by it.

The Minister seems to be taken aback by the outcry about this. It is blatant discrimination and inequality in the distribution and allocation of sporting grants. These grants were introduced to target disadvantaged areas and ensure every community had proper facilities. We will go on to the yacht club and the golf club. The yacht club figure was €72,000. There was no €600 for the yacht club. One of the golf clubs that received €150,000 charges more than €8,000 for its annual fee. The majority of taxpayers could not afford to join that golf club, not even for a year, but the same taxpayers are forced to pick up the bill for the €150,000 grant we gave out of public money. No club or private school that is financially sufficient should come next or near qualifying for a capital sports grant. Once something is of a private nature and is financially viable and sufficient, it should not qualify while there are disadvantaged areas that do not even have a pitch.

There are school gyms where four buckets are needed in each corner of the gym to catch the rainwater. I have some suggestions. The Committee of Public Accounts needs to look into this. I am sure the Ministers would not have a problem with that. It is serious enough that the qualifying criteria for the allocations need to be looked into. They need to be totally overhauled. There needs to be an audit and support must given for every application because there also is a kind of inequality in the competition aspect. A golf club that is financially sufficient or a private school that has the finances and the resources can ensure an application is correct and can put their full weight behind the application. A local voluntary club does not have those resources. The competition aspect of it needs to be examined and unless that is done, the sports capital grants will be a laughing stock. The evidence from this allocation shows the Minister has moved away entirely from the very reasons this grant was set up. The Minister needs a policy whereby an audit is the first thing to be carried out.