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

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire, an Teachta Martin. Gabhaim mo bhuíochas leis an gcoiste as an deis a thabhairt dom plé a dhéanamh ar thionchar an Mheastacháin Fhorlíontach theicniúil don chlár spóirt.

Budget 2025 was a significant moment for Irish sport. Two years ahead of schedule, the Government doubled funding for sport compared to 2018 levels. This is a key commitment under the national sports policy, which sought to double funding for sport compared to 2018 levels by 2027. This target has been achieved ahead of target.

This technical Supplementary Estimate provides for an additional €15 million for the community sports facilities fund, which we used to call the sports capital equipment programme, due to the faster delivery of funded projects, which is great to see, and consequently faster than anticipated draw-down of grants. I welcome this pace of delivery from communities throughout the country when it comes to sports projects. This underlines the ongoing demand for support across sporting clubs and bodies for which the Government has provided record funding. In addition, €200,000 is being provided to subhead D8, which is for major sports events and this is just to meet commitments in bringing the Ryder Cup to Ireland in 2027.

This additional funding is provided through savings in subhead D7, which is the LSSIF heading, where unfortunately drawdown on some large projects has been slower than anticipated. This is something I have spoken about on a number of occasions. Savings from this subhead have, as I said, been reallocated to the community sports facilities fund but also reallocated to support Tourism Ireland, TG4 and Coimisiún na Meán as referenced by the Minister. This technical Supplementary Estimate does not amount to any additional Exchequer funding outside that provided under the original Revised Estimates for 2024. However, it allows for the continued support of sport.

Tá mé sásta aon ceisteanna a fhreagairt atá ag an gcoiste.