Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We would be happy to consider that.

Senator O'Mahony asked a question. I will deal with the schools issue. Perhaps the Minister of State will deal with the issue of large sports infrastructure and minority sports. He is better equipped to deal with those issues than I.

I presume the school to which the Senator refers is Wesley College. That was a joint application, made with the Young Men's Christian Association, YMCA. A lot of the high-profile coverage of this case emphasised that Wesley College is a private school. That is true. The school made the application because the Methodists are the registered owners. However, this point should be made clear. As a result of that particular deal, which by the way I had absolutely nothing to do with, the YMCA will have the right to use the hockey pitch for 31.5 hours per week for 15 years. Their use is at specified times but a lot of those are peak times, including Saturdays and Sundays. This opens the facility to a totally new community. While Wesley of course does benefit, the agreement requires that it opens up private grounds to a community. That is very important and it is not fully understood. In that application, which I have looked at since the controversy erupted, it is specified that the facilities will be available to Taney and Whitechurch national schools in the area, as well as a local soccer league. The community will benefit from this to a large extent.