Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Most of the pertinent points on this issue have been raised more than eloquently by my colleagues and, therefore, I am not going to go over old ground or focus on the status of the applications from the many individual clubs in my constituency, which the Minister knows better than I do.

I would like to tease out two or three points that were mentioned, however. One point highlighted in the opening remarks concerned encouraging the drawing down of existing allocated grants. It has been an extremely tough two years for sport. Every club has been devastated at every level and resources, including human resources, time and fundraising abilities, have been devastated. In turn, the ability to draw down funds is also now greatly reduced. Simply encouraging clubs, therefore, is not enough. What efforts are being made by the Department to work with clubs and sports associations to ensure they can realise those already-allocated grants?

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