Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The budget this year for the National Sports Campus is €4 million or thereabouts, I understand. The McCarthy report wants it abolished altogether. I do not agree with that as I believe we need a national sports facility, to supplement the moneys we have spent on local sports facilities. As the Minister of State says, it now has planning permission and there is a budget of €4 million.

Under a freedom of information request it has come to my attention that the National Sports Campus has a contractual commitment of €9.5 million for project management and design for phase one of the project, but there is no budget whatsoever for that. On top of that it took over the Abbotstown lands this year and the maintenance costs for this is an additional €1 million for which there is no budget. The international benchmarking report, last year, said that the aquatic centre alone would need an annual subsidy of €1.5 million, and there is no budget for that either.

Can the Minister of State say what meetings have taken place between the Minister and the sports campus, to discuss the fact that it has contractual commitments? What consideration is being given to the fact that it may have to withdraw from these contractual commitments? What will the cost be, not just the financial cost, but in terms of the loss of expertise in standing down the design team and the lost momentum in providing these facilities? It is catastrophic as far as this facility is concerned, and in terms of the Government's annual budget, let alone the budget for sports.

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