John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

In terms of Government aid, the Deputy should not focus on my Department in isolation. He should consider the entire spectrum of Government and he would note that there have been substantial transfers of resources to his constituency since 1997. That is a fact. For example, I travelled to Monaghan earlier this year to examine the swimming pool in Monaghan town and there is no question but that the people of Monaghan require a new swimming pool. I did everything I possibly could to advance the cause of the swimming pool, as everyone in County Monaghan knows. I sincerely hope that a new pool will be built there soon. That funding would be included under the swimming pool programme and not under the sports capital programme. Therefore, one cannot be selective in this regard.

It is also the case, and little can be done about this, that in many circumstances the people living in the county from where I come submit many applications for funding under the sports capital programme and often the proportion of applicants can be higher than the number in other counties. The percentage of funding awarded to counties Cavan and Monaghan was reflective of the population and other grants for other projects have been and will be sanctioned for those counties. The Deputy need have no concern about that.

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