Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It was a Covid grant, possibly. I do not know about that particular one but money was given out to private swimming facilities for energy as well this year. There are certain conditions attached. A private hotel would not qualify for a sports capital grant. This funding is an old fund from many years ago. We awarded money to three projects, I think. That money was awarded when Deputy Andrews and I were in the same parliamentary party. It is still there. I have been trying to activate some of these projects. I spoke to a TD in the constituency in which one of the projects is located to try to get activation. That money has not been spent. As I understand, there are three projects; we can check that. It is an old grant. There is no agenda to privatise. We have given grant aid to swimming pools under the LSSIF and will do the same under a new round of LSSIF. Swimming pools can apply in the same way. This is an old fund with money sitting there, waiting for, I think, three local authorities to draw it down. We want them to draw it down but it has not been drawn down this year so we are allocating it. We are also writing and almost finished a swimming strategy. That is also high on the Department's agenda. It will be published soon.

On the League of Ireland, my dad was a player for Drogheda and a player and a manager for Drogheda United. I regularly go to League of Ireland Drogheda United home games. I watched Sligo Rovers recently play Drogheda United. I am a regular attendee. I have not just come to the League of Ireland as a Minister of State, I have been going since I was very young and all through my life. I travelled on the European scene when Drogheda United was playing abroad.

This is something I am very committed to and football fans should know we want to support it. Media does not come under my remit but I understand that the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, does not tell broadcasters what to show and not show on television. I would certainly encourage people to look at it. It is really good that attendances are up. I can see the level of interest among my own kids and their friends and their excitement when they see players they know on the street. Certainly, at the moment in the case of Drogheda, there is interest among a number of people in the relatively local area around Meath, south Louth and, of course, Dublin as well and from abroad, and we like to see the club do well.

On the FAI and sports bodies in general, the funding cut is not a punishment. We really do not want to do it and it pains me even to discuss it. However, this has been on the agenda for five years. It is the exact same rule as is applied to political parties. I was in a club once and was asked what if that happened to Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. Actually, that is the rule - effectively our funding will be cut by 50% if we do not have 40% of candidates from each gender. This is what we brought in. I am at pains to emphasise that there are organisations other than the FAI that are also not in compliance. The FAI has an AGM coming up and I am sure it will want to do it. Whatever about the issues at the previous EGM, they were not to do with the principle. People were not arguing against women being on the board but there were other issues. In general people support that. I hope the FAI can get resolution of it.