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

I agree with the Deputy and that is what these sports plans are for. I hope that some of the pilot ones will be passed by local authorities will be passed in the coming weeks. As that is rolled out, it will put sport at the centre of local authority decision-making and it has to be.

The Deputy accused local authorities of having a computer says "No" approach but I can tell him from my Department's point of view, in terms of the community sports facilities fund, it will be a computer says "Yes" approach, because every valid application will receive an allocation. I do not know offhand if any of the clubs mentioned by the Deputy are on the list of who has applied. The list is publicly available and if they have valid applications, they will be successful.

What we have done on this particular round is to try to prioritise the deprivation index so where the need is greatest, applicants from those areas will get the most funding. That has been done on a completely independent and transparent basis in my Department. It is important to ensure the clubs that need it get it. It is about grassroots clubs. One of the reasons the Minister, Deputy Martin, and I have renamed the fund the "community sports facilities fund" was to recognise these are communities coming together, sometimes fundraising significantly themselves, and we are here to help that and add to it and I agree with the Deputy. I will not say "pressure" but we will encourage local authorities more to be in this space, which they need to be.

I have has d a lot of engagements with Dick Shakespeare, the new city manager for Dublin, and will engage with others as well, and of course my own local authorities. I can see a proactive approach being taken there when looking at the applications that have been put in such as for Dalymount Park and other projects, and the attitude Dublin City Council has towards the Dublin City Marathon. We are seeing a changing focus on sport in local authorities and we want to see that around the country.

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