Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, I want to make it clear that that is not the question that was asked of me on the Order Paper. In fact, my Department rang Deputy Niall Collins's party's spokesperson last Friday, at which time he did not know what question he was asking. It is difficult for me to answer a question when the Deputy himself does not know on the previous Friday what the question is.

On the question Deputy Niall Collins raised, since we came into office we have had special schemes every year. We had one for boxing, one for athletics and one for rugby, and this year we had one for the FAI, besides which we allocated €30 million for Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Those all were special allocations, and the FAI made an application. With regard to boxing, we gave the funding to the boxing body, it set up the criteria and it picked the grantees. With athletics, we gave funding to the relevant body and it picked the grantees. With the FAI, it picked the grantees.

Some newspaper ran out with sensational stories, but that newspaper would be far better off if the journalist came down and saw the facilities. For example, I will refer to one club. Deputy Niall Collins is talking about the club from my own town of Westport. That club paid €350,000 for land. If it had been here in Dublin, the local authority would have provided that land for them. Last year, it had to get rid of the girls' football teams because it did not have facilities. The club plays its home games in Castlebar and Ballyhean, away from its facilities. It never got a grant from the Department under any of the grant allocations made previously. The FAI selected the club, as it did the three clubs from Munster. Is Deputy Niall Collins objecting to the three from Munster? Is he objecting to the one from Clones? Is he objecting to the one from Mayo? I am surprised that Fianna Fáil would even think of being against the provision of facilities in rural areas in the regions. The situation in relation to this club is that a journalist ran off with a sensational story without checking the facts, and I challenge that journalist to come down to the club and see the 400 children who are playing football every weekend in our town and in our county.

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