Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)

Some 17 people have worked voluntarily on a scheme under the Ballybay Development Association and have provided interest-free loans. They have attracted participation from schools and universities from Northern Ireland. Its counterpart body in the North, the Wildlife, Fowl and Wetland Trust in Belfast will receive funding of £2 million sterling to help its development, yet the Ballybay Development Association, which cost €868,000 to establish, submitted an application for grant aid for €180,000 which is not forthcoming.

There is also a lakeshore heritage development in Concra Wood, the core activity of which is golf. That development has been refused funding on the grounds that golf is not one of those activities that attracts funding despite that in some local economies, especially a local economy such as Castleblayney, such recreational sport would attract the provision of additional bed and breakfast accommodation and tourists. Does the Minister agree that it would be beneficial to the economy for these types of clubs to gain from the sports capital grant?

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