Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

One absolutely key area for giving young people a positive outlet for energies that might otherwise go in worrying or dangerous directions is sport. This also has a great deal of relevance in the context of women and of challenging all the misogyny that one can encounter. One of the positive developments we have seen in the past few years is the tremendous growth in participation in sport, by young people in general and by women in particular, which has been enormous and very positive, including boxing, soccer, Gaelic, rugby and all sorts of other ports. However, there is a chronic deficit of facilities and pitches to cater for this huge growth in participation in sport.

I will speak to my area, but I hear it is much the same everywhere else. I will give one positive example. After a 20-year fight, Monkstown Boxing Club, on behalf of which I campaigned for many years, in a disadvantaged area, finally opened its clubhouse this week. It was a 20-year fight. It has an Olympian this year, Jack Marley, and fantastic people such as Robin O'Reilly, a young woman who is competing at international European level, and many others. This is fantastic for young girls, women and men, but for years they were in totally inadequate facilities, with no showers and so on. They had to fight for 20 years. I am glad the council eventually got on board. It was a huge victory and shows the potential that exists.

I then look at Sallynoggin Pearse in the area where I live. This is a club that the legendary Paul McGrath began his career playing for. It has been fighting for almost as long, near enough 20 years, for a new facility. It was promised by the council that on giving up an oul' shack it had and a pitch on a public park that it would get a facility, but it is now being given the runaround. That club is partnering its senior team, which has been around since the fifties in Sallynoggin, with Granada's junior team, involving many young women in particular. It has a proposal for a new clubhouse but, to be honest, the council is giving it the runaround. It has been promised and promised. The club is willing to raise money itself and so on but there seems to be control-freakery and a negative attitude. St. Joseph's boys' team, which I used to play for, also in Sallynoggin, is fighting for an all-weather pitch and, again, is getting the runaround over it. Cuala, one of the most successful GAA clubs, is struggling for pitches. Dalkey United is struggling for pitches and facilities, as are teams in Shankill and Cabinteely. Cabinteely GAA has inadequate facilities for its club, as does Shankill FC and so on.

I appeal to the Minister of State to give an instruction for local authorities to positively engage with the clubs and not have a controlling or dismissive attitude to the provision of these vital facilities for youth participation in sport.

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