Mr. Cian Ó Lionáin:

When applications were opened for the LSSIF two years ago, the east coast sports hub project scored very well because it had that multiplicity of sports. At a policy level, we want to encourage projects where a number of sports come together and collaborate with the local authority. Officials in the capital area of the Department, based in Killarney, are talking to Wexford County Council, in particular, on the timing of drawdown of the €5 million or so allocated under the LSSIF.

As part of those discussions, we have given feedback to Wexford County Council on how to best structure its drawdown application to facilitate that. We hope drawdown happens as soon as possible because as a Department we want to see as much drawdown as possible under this round of LSSIF to create the space for a third round of it in the coming years. We will take any meetings necessary with any of the partners in any of these applications to ensure they get off the ground. I commend the model of multiple sports working with local authorities. As a Department, we would like to see that happening elsewhere in the country.