Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The club is closer to the Minister of State's part of the world. I would like to think he has some power in this matter. I have no doubt it is a very good application. There are other applications in the locality, including from Na Piarsaigh-Blackrock CLG, which is very close to my house. This is very localised politics. There is also Clann Naofa Boxing Club.

Again, I am talking about outfits that do a great deal of work.

Turning to soccer, I spoke about this earlier to the Minister of State. I am going to put it straight. Among local clubs, Woodview Celtic FC does not currently have a pitch and would like to have what the likes of Quay Celtic FC and Muirhevna Mór FC have. I accept that sometimes we have to look at this from a municipal point of view and perhaps it must involve an element of sharing. Louth County Council is looking at certain pieces of ground that may become available in the near future, but we need to look at the council playing a leading part. While the investment that may happen in Drogheda United FC is dependent, as the Minister of State said, on council members, the League of Ireland need stadiums to be sustainable.

Dundalk FC has submitted a sports capital project that is supported by the council and the FAI. It is one of those regional applications and it relates to delivering a new pitch and lighting. We are talking about a pitch that looks the same as it did when I was playing on it as a kid in the 1980s, so it definitely needs to be rectified. A development group is working on it and, in fairness, Dundalk FC would say that the way the GAA was always ahead was in the sense that it had a plan, whereas soccer sometimes lacked that. We need to look at the LSSIF in respect of this. I accept the Minister of State has to look at outside investment and the development group is working on a plan, which will be about developments within Oriel Park. I would like to think the Minister of State and the Department will be supportive of this because it is absolutely necessary across the board.

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