Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the first question, as I stated in my initial remarks, we are finalising the assessment of the applications. I am engaging with the Minister, Deputy McGrath, on the final figure and what we can allocate. I expect the final amount to be very significant. I do not propose to give a figure until it has been agreed with the Minister but there is a commitment, reaffirmed in the national development plan, around sports capital and equipment programme. I expect that - this is also relevant to the Senator's point on the FAI report - to be of huge benefit to our grassroots football, but also across many other sports.

On the point regarding multi-use and shared facilities, I share the Senator's view on that. We try to encourage sharing of facilities and multi-use sporting facilities in our sports capital and equipment programme. Across Europe, the proliferation and development of sporting infrastructure has been on a shared basis in communities, as mentioned by the Senator. We are trying to encourage that through our capital investment. This is evident in the sports capital plan, where we reward clubs and communities that come together to share facilities. There will be an overall net benefit for all sports where that happens.