Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this important motion. Deputy Ó Ríordáin captured the romance of football. I send my well wishes to the women’s football team, in particular Abbie Larkin, who is from the heart of football in Ringsend, in the Women’s World Cup, which is starting on 20 July.

League of Ireland football is in a good place, but that will stop being the case if we do not invest in it. The FAI’s investment proposal is welcome. Crucially, it is based on evidence, namely, an audit of the current infrastructure. I welcome that, under the plans, 50% of the funds will go to grassroots football. It is important the Government would carry out a long-overdue national sports facilities audit. From this, we would have a national sports facilities strategy. This would mean facilities for all sports would be developed where they were needed as opposed to being based on the profile of the club or current ministerial preferences. It would also mean facilities would not be dependent on clubs having deep pockets. A sports facilities strategy would avoid a situation where the county of Wexford would have no full-sized 11-a-side AstroTurf pitch. It would mean we would not have ten counties with no full-sized hockey pitches. Sinn Féin published our national sports facilities strategy, which set out clearly the need to provide facilities in the communities that required them, not in the communities that simply lobbied the best.

We need to reform the sports capital grant programme. It is weighted against working-class clubs and benefits more affluent clubs. For example, clubs need large savings to pay for projects upfront before they can draw down grants. As a result, some clubs have to take out loans. Other clubs may never be able to draw down grants because they do not have the savings to spend upfront. A large number of football and other sports clubs do not have their own grounds and so cannot apply for the sports capital grant. Of Dublin’s football clubs, 73% do not have their own facilities. Clubs in less affluent areas do not find it as easy to access professional services as affluent clubs do.

Ireland is bottom in terms of European investment in sport. If we were in a league, we would have been relegated long ago. Sinn Féin supports an increase in investment in domestic football. Any such increase would be funded through the Exchequer rather than any specific revenue stream. Therefore, the economic impact of any proposal to increase a specific revenue stream should be analysed closely.

Football is not the only sport that has seen underinvestment. All sports have, and we must change that. We need to invest in all sports and all sports must be treated equally, including having equal access to sports funding based on the needs of the public, not on political needs and political expediency.

We need to create a football industry. Irish football needs to be professionalised so that it can generate the bulk of its own income. If we invest in Irish football and professionalise the sport, we will create jobs in football and attract interest and investment into it. When the film industry was on its knees, the State invested in it. Today, it is thriving. The State needs to do the same for Irish football. The high-tech industry was and is supported by the State. The same must be done for Irish football. We need to introduce the leisure card scheme to address the rising cost barrier to participation. A recent report found that 20% of children had either stopped or reduced participation in sport due to the cost of living. A leisure card scheme would support these families and help to keep children involved in sport. Through increased participation, sports clubs will increase their funding.

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