Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

The Irish Sports Council is working from rented offices in Blanchardstown and it is proposed that it will move to Abbotstown House. No decision on this has been made for certain because we need to examine the house and work out how much it would cost to refurbish it so it would be able to take the Irish Sports Council. We must also work out when the lease where it is ends to ensure any move is value for money. It is a decision that should be made this year.

With regard to the London Olympics I am not aware of any additional teams which have agreed to take up training facilities at the Sports Campus. Quite a number will use the National Aquatic Centre which is very welcome. We have learned two things, the first of which is if we want teams to train here we must have the facilities, which we do in the National Aquatic Centre and the pool in Limerick but not when it comes to track and field events and gymnastics. We hope to change this by developing the Sports Campus. We also learned that cities in the UK gave cash incentives to teams to train there and the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, and I took the view that rather than spending €20,000 or €30,000 to entice the Tajikistan basketball team to come to a town in Ireland the money would be better spent on facilities and sports people in Ireland.

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