Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I pay tribute to the Labour Party for tabling this motion. I pay particular tribute to Deputy Ó Ríordáin for his obvious passion in this debate and his genuine interest in soccer. He gave a fantastic speech this morning with which people on this side of the House would not disagree. I pay tribute to everybody who took part in the debate and the visitors in the Public Gallery.

The value of football certainly is not lost on me. My father played with Drogheda United in the League of Ireland and was subsequently player-manager at the club. I am very proud of that connection and I am a regular visitor to United Park. My appreciation for football stems from my upbringing. I would not say my father chose football over Gaelic sports but he certainly was put in that direction through one thing or another.

In her earlier remarks, the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, covered many aspects of the motion. I will talk about investment in sport infrastructure generally and, specifically, how we can help football clubs to improve their facilities. The sports capital programme is the primary vehicle to get funding into clubs for capital improvements. We launched a new round today, which will open for applications from next Monday, 17 July. Since 1998, more than €1 billion in funding has been given under the programme. I am really keen for football clubs to apply for the scheme. It is a fact that the ask from Gaelic sports in recent years was much greater than that from football clubs. Various reasons for this have been outlined by speakers, with some suggesting capacity is an issue. If that is so, we have asked the FAI to address it and, in addition, the Department is willing to help clubs with applications, as are Deputies on all sides of the House.

Another factor is that in some quarters in the FAI, there was an attitude of it dealing with it; that there was no need to go to the Government. I am glad to say that attitude has changed. I probably have engaged with the FAI more than I have with any other organisation in regard to the upcoming sports capital programme. It is no coincidence that between the Minister and me, we had two football teams photographed at the launch yesterday, namely, Dunshaughlin Youths FC and Rosemount Mulvey FC from the Minister's constituency.

We have had a lot of engagement with the FAI. Indeed, we also had a boxer, Aoife O'Rourke, with us. I am having an engagement with the Irish Athletic Boxing Association today. It has been suggested that there is some kind of class issue. I am engaging with the boxing authorities about this today as well to make sure that those clubs are equipped and capable of applying for sports capital grants, because that is really important.

Under the last round of sports capital grants, soccer projects received €25 million. That is up from €6.6 million in the previous round. Every single valid soccer application was successful in the most recent round and I would love it if that continued. I cannot promise any club or any sport that it will happen again this time but we will certainly discuss the matter with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, when the applications come in. The reality is that more soccer clubs applied this time and that is why they benefited from the scheme. I want to see that continue.

We do not ring-fence money for particular sports. As a Minister of State, I have responsibility for sport rather than for any particular sport and I certainly want to be as fair as possible in this regard. We have reviewed the sports capital programme. That review is published and out there. We have also published the guide. There are a number of new features to this round of the sports capital programme. The top priority under the sports capital programme is disadvantage. That is the top priority so the programme is weighted towards disadvantaged communities and areas. It always has been and always will be. There are a number of other features to the programme this year. We have told national governing bodies that there will significant funding cuts if they do not achieve 40% gender representation on their boards. That will have to be done if these bodies want to draw down funds from the sports capital programme. To be fair, while the FAI is not there yet - neither are the governing bodies of the other four or five major sports - it is getting there. I note that the FAI recently appointed Maeve McMahon to its board and I believe it is on track to reach the 40% by the end of the year. It has to do so, as do the bodies governing rugby, boxing and the GAA. We will be publishing an update on that soon. I have also said that under no circumstances will capital funding be provided unless the applicant body confirms it is in compliance with the Equal Status Act. There is also an additional requirement for all applicant bodies to provide access to facilities for men and women on similar terms. That is a radical new change we have made to the sports capital programme. To be quite honest, I think most football clubs are in the happy position that they already do so. This will advantage football.

The scheme will be open for applications from 17 July to 8 September and we want to see as many projects funded as possible. The application form is quite user-friendly and officials in the Department are always available to take phone calls from clubs or Members of the Oireachtas regarding the sports capital programme. They have a reputation for that.

On some of the large-scale projects, Finn Harps was mentioned. That is a complicated project that has been around for many years but I gave final approval from the Department on 8 June 2023. It is with the Chief State Solicitor's Office to tie up some legal loose ends but, as far as the Department is concerned, the approval is done. We look forward to the project. I was at the ladies' game in Tallaght Stadium. That stadium has been the beneficiary of significant funding under the sports capital programme. Through the urban regeneration and development fund, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien's has also put significant funding into that stadium. You can see on the new stand that development was supported by Project Ireland 2040. That is real investment. Unfortunately, when Shamrock Rovers came to Drogheda on Friday night, they were not able to put that investment into securing a win against Drogheda FC.

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