Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As someone who plays both soccer and football, including all summer with my football club, I am a passionate supporter of both sports. I certainly feel there is full fairness in the system of allocations for sports capital and across the board. Those allocations reflect the popularity of the sports but are also responsive to the needs of communities. If we look at the most recent round of sports capital funding, it is clear to anybody who has analysed the figures that we very much try to target disadvantaged communities. Of the €57 million that was allocated recently, €19 million went to disadvantaged communities and €4.5 million was given to what are considered affluent communities, according to the Pobal deprivation index. The funding is heavily stacked towards disadvantaged communities, and that is very positive.