David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are all agreed on the principle that we should sweat the asset, for want of a better way of putting it, and that schools should be used outside of school hours as much as possible for all the activities communities need. I am particularly concerned about areas where there are no community facilities at all. A lot of such communities are growing. Even where there are community facilities, the adage, build it and they will come, applies.

I am involved in a community centre in my town of Midleton. We built a small centre and 1,000 people a week are using it. We are now putting on an extension, as more and more people want this kind of stuff to happen. Could I suggest to the Minister of State that an awards scheme would be put in place for schools that get involved in communities, a badge of honour, as it were? We need to be proactively involved. I ask that these guidelines would be reissued. We need to nudge schools that are not bothered or are worried and afraid because they probably want to do it as well and need encouragement and support. We are all on the same page here. I thank the Minister of State for his response. Let us move on with this.

See this speech in context