Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The link between child well-being and young people being active and playing sports is extremely well established. For young people to be able to play sports, though, we need sports facilities in local communities. We do not currently have the facilities we should have right across the country. I will give one example from the area where I live in Kingswood. It is a place where about 4,000 people live. There are about 16 or more local sports clubs. Most of them, though, have to go outside the area to train. There are four tennis courts in the middle of the estate but these have fallen into disrepair and have not been used for years. The community has come together in a very active campaign to have a sports facility hub in place of the tennis courts that are unused and in disrepair. A detailed plan has been devised. The sports clubs, the residents association and the community centre have all come together behind this plan and agreed to do all the related work. There is a specific local objective for it in the local development plan.

See this speech in context