Mr. Packie Bonner:

That is a good question. I have travelled a lot throughout Europe and have seen many municipal multisport projects that have helped different sports. From that perspective, I would love to see more conversations in the Department of sport and maybe the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and maybe even with the local authorities, on mandating the provision of these facilities – for all sports, not just our own.

From our own perspective, we have to prioritise what the investment plan and facility should be. We have to consider the grassroots but also our national league. There has been a paradigm shift in football in Ireland. With Brexit, most of our young players are now confined to Ireland. That was not the case when I was technical director. Mr. Brian Kerr and I made the point many times that if conditions were to change, we might be in trouble. That has happened but it also creates a genuine opportunity for us. There are three essentials when we talk about the development of sport, particularly football: having the right programmes in place; having the right people and expertise; and, fundamentally, having the right facilities in place to help, underpinned by funding and good communication.

That means synergies between grassroots, our national league and our football association. All of that has to come together for the future. It is about cohesion, synergies, working together and from that perspective, we need help from everybody and all the stakeholders concerned.