John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

A number of potential sites for visiting teams have been identified in the initial discussions. It is important to recognise that we have a number of quite decent facilities, such as the rowing centre at Inniscarra, the equestrian centre at Punchestown, the aquatic centre in Blanchardstown, the tennis centre in Glasnevin, the boxing stadium in Dublin 8, the training facilities in the University of Limerick and the hockey stadium in University College Dublin. Progress is also being made in devising a national sports facility strategy. We have engaged Holohan Leisure Consultancy, following a competitive tender competition, to assist us with the strategy. It is anticipated the strategy will be completed within six months. The strategy will examine all the available information on sports facilities and identify the gaps to which Deputy Wall referred. Information on facilities is held by the Department of Education and Science, the Irish Sports Council, individual sporting bodies and local authorities. If we ascertain and map out what is already in place at national, regional and local levels, we will have started to develop a strategic approach to the future provision of facilities, established the level of need that exists in the sports sector and helped to determine future priorities. We are continuing with phase 1 of the Abbotstown project. Some €119 million has been included in my Department's capital envelope to complete that phase of the project by the end of 2010. In that context, I intend to bring further proposals to the Government soon, arising from the deliberations of the national sports development authority, which will be established on 1 January next to succeed Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Limited with regard to the second priority of the plans.

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