Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Humphreys is correct. I am pleased to have been able to help disadvantaged areas this time. I could have spent more money in Dublin but for the situation I have outlined.

The Deputy is speaking my language. It greatly annoys me that every other Department wants to have responsibility for sport. Funding is scattered through the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Health and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. I agree with the Deputy and I have been complaining about this since I entered office. All of that funding should be allocated to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, which should only deal with sport and nothing else. It is ludicrous that sport is dealt with in the other Departments. If it was all allocated through the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, we could target isolation, rural and urban areas and establish more schemes.

We must put more money into sport; it is money that is well spent. This was the first scheme since 2008 and it was a great achievement to get it up and running. I hope we can continue with this next year. Even if we do not have the money we had this year, if we have €20 million next year, it would be great to open it again. Those clubs that did not get any funding this time are at least validated but the clubs that were not validated should now get themselves validated, and get back into this. Four years was too long to leave clubs unable to make an application.

The Deputy is right about the divide between rural and urban areas. In Dublin, the local authorities provide a lot of facilities. In rural Ireland, that does not happen. I do not care; I like to see sporting facilities everywhere. We are far better investing money in sport than spending the much greater amount of money needed to keep a prisoner in jail. We are better off investing in boxing, which helps in the fight against antisocial behaviour.

I thank the volunteers because it is them who keep sport alive. They collect the money, train the young people and do the work and we do not thank them enough. We are bloody lucky in this country that we have so many volunteers who are prepared to give their time to support young people.

See this speech in context