Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Stanton for raising this important matter. I know how passionate he is about the delivery of sporting facilities in conjunction with the schools building programme. I thank the Deputy for allowing me to provide information on the provision of sports facilities at the Carrigtwohill school campus in east Cork.

The Carrigtwohill school campus project, as the Deputy said, is the largest single school building project ever undertaken by the Department and will serve a school community of more than 2,400 pupils. The project was completed in quarter 4 2023 under the Department’s design and build programme and delivered a new 1,000-pupil post-primary school for Carrigtwohill Community College and two 24-classroom primary schools for Carrigtwohill Community National School and Scoil Mhuire Naofa and accommodation, including 14 classrooms across the three projects for children with special education needs. The project also delivered three GP areas, a PE hall in the post-primary school and 13 ball courts in total.

The Department supports and encourages the use of school buildings and school sports facilities outside of school hours for community and recreational purposes, where feasible. I know Deputy Stanton campaigned strongly for opening up school facilities for out-of-use hours.

The land to the south of the site has been designated, as the Deputy said, as a flood retention area as required under the campus flood mitigation design. These lands are designed to retain overflow floodwaters during periods of heavy rainfall and therefore are unsuitable for development as playing pitches.

I feel the Deputy has a strong argument in respect of this issue. Twenty-four hours previous, we had the announcement of one of the largest sports infrastructure programmes. This Government is investing more than €250 million in community sports facilities. Here we have a situation where we have an excessive amount of hard court facility areas - it was referenced that there are 13 ball courts in total - without any provision for grass.

There is certainly a major disconnect between those who play on hard courts and those who play on grass. It is not like for like; it is completely different.

Young people will be at a significant disadvantage if common sense does not prevail in relation to what the local community requires. There can be the provision of a flood retention area, but why not repurpose this into a playing field at the same time? I support the Deputy in the context of what he is requesting, namely that the Department review this. I will take that back to the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the officials, because I am conscious that within our Department the zoning of recreational land is a real challenge now, certainly with respect to competing priorities. Given this is in such close proximity to this enormously large school campus, it would benefit so many and future-proof the school, not just as a centre for education but also as a centre to allow students to enjoy physical activity and play sports at their leisure.

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