Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has sent out an extremely strong signal about equality of participation. Clubs will be very wise to listen carefully to what he is saying to ensure they can draw down the full funding available to them.

Deputy Durkan referred to capacity within clubs. We all have helped to review application forms for sports clubs applying for funding. The difference is clear between those clubs that have somebody who is very good at filling in application forms, who leaves no scoring criterion behind, versus the clubs that do not have the same capacity and could do with a bit of training. When we read the forms, we see the person filling it in has not hit box B or whatever. Those clubs are not maximising the potential of their application to achieve success. There is work to be done in this regard. The Department is very helpful. Work is needed on capacity-building, focusing particularly on clubs that have not been successful in the past, to ensure they can share in the funding.

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