Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)

If the Minister of State is in Cork at any stage, he might come to my home parish of Inniscarra, which has 50 acres of sports grounds. The rugby club, the soccer club, the GAA club and the camogie club all have their own individual pitches, all of which were developed over the past 25 to 30 years. They are very well planned facilities and are all together in one area. We need to do that where there are large urban developments, rather than taking a piecemeal approach where this is done literally when many of the younger population have grown up and moved out of the area. It is an issue we need to address.

I thank the Minister of State and the Department for the work they are doing and the way they have delivered, in particular in the last eight to ten years. On Monday of this week, I was at a sports club which is undertaking a €200,000 development. While I was there, the club was doing a walk to raise the remaining money it needs. It has the sports grant but it needs to raise the additional money. It is a huge community effort. The Department is also doing a very good job. It is important to plan for major, large-scale urban development.

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