Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When a fellow like the Minister of State reaches for academia to back up what he is doing, I would be very worried.

In the long term, the local authorities must have a greater involvement in the identification and roll-out of appropriate infrastructure. In some parts of the country, there are two or three well-developed pitches, with all the bells and whistles associated with such developments, that are idle for certain parts of the week. I know where such infrastructure emerged from. There is an over-supply in some areas where good and progressive clubs got their act together. On the other hand, some large centres of population have nothing because they do not have a club structure to act as a nucleus around which services could be provided and infrastructure could be built. While those who look at this from a national perspective might say "that is tough, but we could not do it because there were no applications", we have to be more broadly based when we look at the provision of infrastructure. I suggest this is where the local authorities should come into the equation.

I will give an example from the county and constituency I know best. Quite some time ago, the town council and the county council took an initiative to buy a tract of land in the county town of Ennis for the purpose of the development of communal facilities. This infrastructure, which is known as the Lees Road project, has not taken from the clubs that have their own facilities. It has provided facilities to clubs that do not have them. It has done so on a communal basis. The existence of a critical mass allows better facilities to be developed. I think that is where we need to go with the sports capital programme in the long term if we are to ensure we get a much better return on our investment. We cannot continue to confine our efforts to providing for existing clubs. They will always be looking for money. They deserve some money to allow them to continue to advance. We need to look to the areas in which there is no superstructure around which these services can be built.

The 2012 Indecon report on sport found that there is a return to the Government of approximately €149 from every €100 it invests in Irish sport. In economic terms, sport contributes in three main ways. The Minister of State knows about the employment element of the sports industry.

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