Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has made a good suggestion. I will take it back to the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne. Critically, it would be important that DCC would engage with the clubs and try to find a solution, particularly when incidents such as this occur because they can leave a pitch unplayable for quite some time. The capital grants I spoke about will allow the works to be carried out on these pitches to make them playable. It can be quite significant to get drainage and all those issues resolved. It is really unfortunate. Okay, one of the incidents the Deputy spoke about was unavoidable, but the second incident, of which I saw reports, was terrible. The pitch was ploughed up to a point where it will make it very difficult. Thankfully, the remedial works the council has carried out will help. It is critical, when significant funding is going into the capital programme, that there is an opportunity for clubs to share facilities around Dublin city. That is what they are there for. DCC should engage on that as a starting point, but I will take the Deputy's comments back to the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, to see if there is an opportunity for him to intervene as well.

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