Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The role of volunteers in our sporting organisations at grassroots level is very often overlooked, and such a role is important to sport in this country. Without the volunteers and the grassroots, we do not get the elite athletes and sportspeople coming through. What I and the Minister, Deputy Ross, would like to see at the heart of the sports capital programme is volunteers, who are behind the vast majority of these sporting applications, being happy with the outcome. That is why we are trying to find a way to satisfy as many applicants as we can and to try to give as much meaningful funding to them that we possibly can within the constraints we are operating in. We are looking at ways of doing that at present. We want as few people as possible to be disappointed at the conclusion of this process. It is hoped that can happen. I cannot state enough how important the volunteers behind these applications are and without whom we could not have sport in any meaningful way in this country.

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