Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Geoghegan for raising this issue. I was delighted to attend the Federation of Irish Sport annual awards last week and see the great progress that so many of our national governing bodies were doing. The Government is committed to continuing the pathway we have been on, which is significantly increasing funding for sports to the national governing bodies but particularly to our clubs across the country to develop their facilities further. We saw a significant allocation of €270 million last year in terms of the sports facilities fund. That is something we are now delivering and looking towards building on by opening that up again next spring.

In the meantime, we will continue to work with the national sporting bodies through Sport Ireland, which does exceptional work in supporting clubs across the country as regards improving participation. We are seeing that particularly in terms of increased female participation across all sports.

We look forward to continuing to work with Deputy Geoghegan and all other Deputies on the significant progress we have been making.

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