Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with my colleague from Cork North-Central. I happen to have been chairperson of Blackpool Community Centre a number of years ago - in fact, when we applied for planning permission for a community centre in Ballyvolane. Unfortunately, however, there were so many local objections that it never got planning. I think the mistake that was made in Ballyvolane was about a site not being set aside on day one for a community centre and that it would be built at the same time as the houses were. There are over 1,200 or 1,300 houses there, and then when the houses are all up it is decided to apply for planning. We need to do a lot more in that regard with planning, making sure that people, when they are buying their houses, know the community centre will be close to them in order that we do not allow what happened in Ballyvolane 20-odd years ago, since when nothing has happened there.

In the area of Glanmire there is a need for the local authority to work with the Department on identifying a site and getting the funding. GAA clubs have been very good as regards developing facilities but they too are confined in what they can do because of a lack of space. There needs to be a lot more done by local authorities and then the Department can become involved in providing the funding.

See this speech in context