Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this issue and I thank the Minister of State for being present.

The VEC halls on Clogher Road in Crumlin and in Inchicore are among the education and sports facilities that were introduced when some of us were members of Dublin City Council, DCC. A condition of their introduction was that they had to open their doors in the evening for community use, particularly for football and dancing clubs, martial arts, arts and crafts and active retirement groups. This meant that people in the community who could not avail of the facilities during the daytime found that these centres could be part and parcel of what they did in the evening, and they have become a great asset to community groups. People can stay local and get involved in activities locally without having to journey elsewhere to participate.

Over the past few weeks, Pobal has withdrawn funding from these centres, which means they will only be able to open between 9.30 a.m. and 4 p.m. to facilitate the students in the colleges in Inchicore and Crumlin. While that is welcome, a commitment was given when these sports halls were opened that people in the community would have access to them in the evenings, and this change is hugely disappointing. I requested confirmation of the commitment to community access from the Minister of State in writing and I received a letter from him yesterday. I understand that the Department felt the proposal made by the groups running the centres was not adequate and did not contain sufficient detail. All is not lost; there is a window of opportunity. The Minister of State stated in his letter:

I want to assure you that the Department is committed to securing the community use of these facilities and will continue to work with the CDETB to enable this outcome. The contract with the CDETB was extended to the end of June [I welcome that], which will enable work to continue with the ETB to address matters concerning the Department, with the aim of allowing longer terms of operation of the contract and to ensure viability for the services to continue in the community.

I welcome the final line in the letter, which is important. I stress that if these centres are prevented from opening in the evenings for community use, it will be a huge loss. It will be a reversal of the commitment made when they were built.

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