Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will not delay the Ministers too long with my questions. These are questions I have asked in the past without having the exact figure. It is welcome that some funding is being repurposed although not fully in the way I wished and that there is also a recognition of particular problems that sports clubs and organisations have because they are non-funded. They are not businesses and have specific problems covering rising energy costs. It also raises further questions about their sustainability into the future and how a different model to fund sports clubs, in particular those which have high energy costs such as floodlights, can be managed that in the future. Can more be done to ensure that when lighting is being put in, we try to get in place solar panels, or similar, or perhaps a large battery area so that they can rely more on the sun, a small wind energy generator or something in the future?

While it is good that the funding has been found to alleviate that impact, we do not know where energy costs will go in the future on this island. We are an island and at the moment are dependent on gas and oil from abroad. I hope that will form part of any future sports capital grants. I have made the same request for that to be a central element of large local authority building projects.

How will clubs be able to avail of this? Is there a separate application process? Will there be a quick turnaround? It is a big amount of money for clubs. In recent weeks, a number of clubs have asked me whether there is a fund there. They are eager. They can send in the bills they have got in the post or by email already. I will allow the Minister of State to answer that first and then I may have some further questions.