Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Thank you for accommodating me today, Chairman. I am particularly pleased to be here for this presentation. I welcome the deputation. I also welcome a former director in the FAI, Mr. John Byrne. It is fair to say that when Mr. Byrne was an employee of the FAI he had the ear of every party in the House. There was a great relationship with the FAI when he was there and I acknowledge his presence today as well.

This is a great initiative and I thank the witnesses for their presentations. Everyone here is aware of philanthropy that is willing to engage in something like this. Mr. McGroarty gave figures when he spoke about the 20 individuals and the savings to the State. That is probably across not just health, which is massive in itself, but also education outcomes, improvements in justice and improvements in society and communities, and helping build communities. This is a really smart initiative.

I commend the witnesses on it. Based on their figures, if this was to be rolled out as they would like throughout the country or even a county, are there any projections of the savings that would be made? Mr. McGroarty mentioned an LSP that has just taken it on. Maybe it is too early to ask but will he have figures for that LSP concerning the outcomes there? It is important we see on the ground how this will happen.

Where does it go from here? It is important, as an Oireachtas, that we make something like this work. Being from Donegal and being involved over the years in many clubs and applications for sports capital, I noted that the clubs that had the smartest individuals filling application forms are the ones that did best. That is not really a proper outcome of delivering funding. This is a much smarter approach and more geared to those who need it most. I particularly like that idea, so well done.