Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 24 November 2021

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media

Key Priorities and Legislation of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media: Discussion

Photo of Shane CassellsShane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My final question is in regard to the sports capital programme. The Minister of State alluded to a sum of €200 million in respect of applications received this year. In his budget speech, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, committed to additional funding for this area. What is the expected overall spend?

The FAI published a report last week, launched by the Minister of State, Deputy Jack Chambers, with Packie Bonner, on the social return of Irish football to grassroots. One of the points made by the FAI officials was that while there is a huge gain to society, we need to spend more on facilities and, in particular, to look at the shared campus model that is in place across Europe. We need to break away from our model. It is galling for sports lovers when towns and villages located side by side submit applications for funding for clubs, primarily GAA but also soccer clubs. We do not get the best bang for our buck from that. Is it time to knock heads together? We need to put Tom Ryan, Jonathan Hill and Philip Browne into a room to discuss how best we can move to the shared campus model across towns in Ireland into the future.

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