Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the programme for Government commitments around sports grants and participation in sport. It is clear from the justifiable critical reaction to the awarding and non-awarding of sports-related capital grants to schools that an examination and overhaul of the system is needed. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, saw fit to trumpet the €150,000 granted to Wesley College, a private school, for a hockey pitch, while dozens of public schools in more deprived areas failed to get a button.

Leaving aside the blatant class bias and cronyism at work, there is an in-built bias in the capital sports grant system whereby clubs and schools that own their premises and grounds have greater scope for capital investment than clubs that rent their spaces. Does the Government agree that we need to debate the national sports grant allocation and how to increase the level of participation in sport throughout the country, in line with commitments in the programme for Government?

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