John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Deenihan may have misunderstood what I am trying to say. The work currently undertaken by my Department is a data gathering exercise which will integrate information on facilities that have been previously funded under programmes administered by the Department. However, the audit will also seek to identify sports facilities provided by voluntary sports organisations, local authorities and private individuals, as well as sports facilities available in schools and colleges which have benefitted from grant assistance provided by the Department of Education and Science. Recording this data and making it available in a user friendly and accessible format will be a significant undertaking. An effective way to obtain information on key national and regional facilities is to conduct the audit in two phases. The type of facilities likely to be included in phase one represent key national facilities such as GAA county grounds, rugby and soccer league grounds, university sports campus facilities, local authority run sports centres, synthetic athletic tracks and swimming pools. Phase two will include sports facilities at a local level, including those in post-primary schools.

The audit will be a comprehensive body of work which will enable policy makers to map the location of the various sports facilities throughout the country, whether they are provided through voluntary sports organisations, are privately funded or have benefitted from the assistance of public finance. A better fix on the location of existing sports facilities will obviously lead to more effective targeting in the funding of new facilities, as well as a more efficient use of financial resources.

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