Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I refute what Deputy Wallace said about him being on the far side of the House. It makes no difference who is on what side of the House. I am very proud of the way I have allocated this funding in this sports capital programme. I am the first Minister of State to do it per capita. I am putting in on the record of the House that it will be accepted by every future Minister that they cannot do it any other way. I am doing that against my own county and area simply because every county is to get its fair share. No other Minister had the courage or the guts to do what I did. I took the counties that did very well over recent years, particularly counties which had Ministers, and I penalised them. I gave it to the smaller counties and the counties which had done badly and I am proud of that.

I am amazed Deputy Wallace speaks about soccer. The board of the FAI wrote to me and thanked me for the fairness in the way in which I administered the sports capital programme.

See this speech in context