Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate that. It ultimately boils down to governance. When we are talking about such significant sums of money given to wonderful groups that are based in our communities and doing important work, these issues will be rare. At the same time, we may see evidence of or signposts towards grave concerns in terms of the end product. The Minister of State mentioned spot checks. I will not pin him to it now but I would appreciate if he and his Department would consider examining the process in terms of the outcome. It seems the fund was spent. Certainly, we have a state-of-the-art facility now but the problem is that who is getting to use it does not seem to match up with what was applied for. We have thousands of kids who should be able to avail of the facility but right now it is only a League of Ireland academy, essentially, that is getting to use the facility. We need to see that improve. I would appreciate if the Minister of State would give his time and attention to that.

I commend the Government on its commitment to sports. We see the outcomes for kids' and young people's physical and mental health. It makes such a difference and there is proper bang for buck from sports investment. I commend the Minister of State, wish him the best in his brief and thank him for the opportunity to raise this. I look forward to meeting with him again. I hope, once the report is published, he will meet with the interim executive in KDUL to get to the heart of the issue.

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