Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

The Government has provided €149 million under the National Development Plan 2007 to 2013 for the development of a national sports campus at Abbotstown. The Government has already approved the development of facilities under phase one of a development control plan prepared by CSID, the predecessor of the National Sports Campus Development Authority, NSCDA. These facilities will be designed to meet the indoor and outdoor training needs of Irish elite sportspersons who compete at national and international levels, and will also provide for the needs of the local community. Preliminary planning for this phase has begun and the NSCDA has advertised a competition to appoint a design team and a project management team for the project.

The facilities to be provided in phase one of the project will include a national field sports training centre catering for rugby, soccer, Gaelic games and hockey; a national indoor training centre which will provide world class training facilities for over 20 national governing bodies of sport; accommodation for sports men and women; sports science and medical facilities; all-weather synthetic pitches for community use; and the renovation of existing buildings to provide administrative offices for sporting bodies.

The Government decision for this stage of development included agreement to move the headquarters of the Football Association of Ireland to the former State laboratory building at Abbotstown. Planning permission for a change of use for the State laboratory has been secured and work on the building is underway. It is expected the FAI will relocate there in the autumn. It is also intended to provide a headquarters for the Irish Institute of Sport by refurbishing an existing building on the site, and preliminary planning on this project has commenced.

A planning study for the Abbotstown site, which is a requirement under a local objective of the Fingal county development plan, has been completed by an inter-agency group which included the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism. This study sets out the mix of sporting, leisure and amenity facilities appropriate for the site. The planning study was considered by Fingal County Council at a meeting held on 12 March 2007 and a proposal was considered to change the zoning of a large portion of the site to open space to allow for sports use and for the woodland area of the site to be zoned for high amenity use. The statutory public consultation period for the proposal for rezoning is due for decision at the meeting of Fingal County Council on 9 July.

Under the National Sports Campus Development Authority Act 2006, the National Sports Campus Development Authority was established on a statutory basis in January to succeed in function and responsibility Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Company Ltd. In addition to overseeing the development of phase one of the campus, the new authority has been requested to identify the facilities that might be considered for the next phase of the development of the Abbotstown project. When completed, the Abbotstown facilities will provide a much needed range of training and competitive facilities for our finest sportspersons.

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