Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on the National Sports Campus Development Authority Bill 2006. The Bill proposes the creation of the national sports campus development authority to oversee the planning and development of a campus of sports facilities at Abbotstown, County Dublin. This saga has a chequered history but it is recognised that a national sports campus is a positive move. Nationally, we will all benefit from that level of expertise. According to the legislation, it will be used by professional and amateur sports people and members of the public. Furthermore, according to the legislation, the authority may engage with a body involved with the promotion of sport at a national level. That is the issue on which I want to concentrate, perhaps more on a regional level.

While I am happy to support a national centre, I am also very concerned about what happens at regional level. We also need sporting facilities in the regions and we need that balance. For many years I have campaigned and asked for balanced regional development — a balance of economic development between the regions. Just as important for people's quality of life is a balance between sporting and recreational facilities. We in the regions are taxpayers too and deserve equal treatment. The reason for my ongoing concern is that the regional sports measure under the regional operational programme has not yet been activated.

We are five and six months into the national development plan. It finishes at the end of 2006 and will we ever see the start of this programme? Over the past four years, I have written to the Minister on a number of occasions. I have his reply, which I will quote shortly, to my questions about this programme but it is worth noting first what is said about this programme in the NDP:

The quality of the cultural, social and recreational infrastructure has a significant role to play in enhancing the attractiveness of a Region, as a place to . . . visit, work or establish an enterprise. Thus, the provision of high quality cultural, recreational and sports facilities will be an important element in the drive to strengthen population structure and promote development throughout the BMW Region.

In prosperous and populous communities, many sporting and recreational facilities will be supplied by the market or by the communities themselves through voluntary efforts. However, in many areas of the BMW Region, this is not possible. Consequently, public sector involvement will be necessary to assist in the provision of such facilities.

Those are the Government's own words. It states that public sector involvement will be necessary to assist in the provision of those facilities. It states also that funding under this measure will be available to assist local authorities in the provision of multi-purpose sport and recreation facilities, especially in areas which lack them, and upgrade existing facilities.

What has happened since? I will quote from the Minister's reply to a parliamentary question I tabled on 15 November 2005. Before tabling this question, I wrote to the Minister on a number of occasions about activating this sub-measure and tabled various questions. This is the most recent reply I received from him. I have checked with the Border, Midland and Western Authority and I understand, based on information received from the authority, that this measure has not yet been activated. In my question to the Minister on 15 November 2005, I asked whether the regional sports measure under the regional OP had been activated, whether funding had been drawn down and, if not, when he proposed to fund this measure in view of the fact that this current regional OP will finish at the end of 2006. According to the Minister's reply:

The sports and recreational facilities sub-measure falls under the local infrastructure priority of the regional operational programmes of the national development plan 2000-2006. It was planned that funding would be provided under the sub-measure by this Department to local authorities and voluntary and community organisations to assist towards the provision or upgrading of multi-purpose sport and recreational facilities. The commencement of the sub-measure was delayed until the completion of the Government's national spatial strategy in order to target support in accordance with the implementation of that strategy. The intention was that once the regional gateways were identified under the national spatial strategy, proposals would be invited from local authorities whose administrative areas contain such designated regions and grant aid would be allocated to suitable developments.

The Minister's reply referred to the national spatial strategy, but this strategy was published in 2002. If we examine the strategy — I refer in particular to my region — we can see that Sligo was designated as a gateway under the strategy and comes under the heading of larger urban areas. According to the strategy:

If balanced regional development is to work, the spatial structure outlined in section 3 must be supported by policies aimed at enhancing the attractiveness of areas for people. Physical and cultural liveliness will be required to ensure that there is a combination of attractive social and cultural facilities for both people and business.

The strategy lists some examples of this at the gateway level, one of which involves "building on the progress made to date in enhancing the physical fabric and improving cultural and leisure amenities in Sligo and Dundalk". We awaited the activation of this measure but nothing has happened since the strategy was published in 2002.

Sligo Regional Sports Centre requires substantial investment and support to help it meet the needs of a gateway city, a designation given to Sligo by the Government. It was announced recently that the public swimming pool at Summerhill College in Sligo will close in June 2006. This swimming pool is a private facility but has been available to the people of Sligo town and the rest of the county and surrounding counties for over 30 years. This facility has been available to people thanks to the diocese of Elphin and the college itself long before there was any public indoor facility in Sligo town. The children of Sligo have learned to swim and life save in Summerhill College's pool, which has been an extremely important part of the fabric of life in Sligo and surrounding counties.

However, for a number of reasons, among them health and safety issues, the pool is to close. What will happen to the children who are currently learning to swim in the pool and children who could swim there in the future if it remained open? Comparable facilities are not available in Sligo. The pool in Sligo Regional Sports Centre is unable to cater for the numbers of people wishing to use it. The pools in both the centre and Summerhill College are full. People from Leitrim, particularly north Leitrim, and all over Sligo come to swim in the pool in Summerhill College. This facility will close at the end of June, yet a measure which was supposed to begin at the beginning of the national development plan in 2000 or, at least, with the publication of the national spatial strategy in 2002 has not been activated and no funding has been drawn down. This funding is available to local authorities and voluntary groups.

Will this money be made available? At the end of the Minister's reply to my question on 15 November 2005, he stated that substantial funding for sports facilities would be sought by his Department in the context of the 2006-10 sports capital envelope. Can we expect that this envelope will contain funding for a new pool in Sligo? As in many cases, people in the regions often have to wait at the end of the queue. We know all about the underspend and the national development plan as it stands. In that context, I echo the comments of Deputy McHugh about access for people from the region.

I have made my case to the Minister, who I hope is listening. I hope something will happen on foot of this because the end of the current national development plan is close. A number of speakers referred to the fact that all sporting facilities will be accessible to people with disabilities, a very important measure which is undoubtedly a necessity. People in the regions pay the same taxes as everybody else. I ask the Minister to look at matters from a regional perspective and activate the regional sports measure so that programmes like the swimming pool in Sligo or the expansion of Sligo Regional Sports Centre can take place within the lifetime of this national development plan.

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