John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The GAA has done a lot of analysis of its activities in different parts of the country. It is concerned about the future organisation of the GAA in some urban communities because the lack of playing space will limit its ability to undertake activities and increase its membership among new communities. That is worth noting in this debate. As a concrete example, in 2017 Galway City Council developed the Kingston master plan for an area quite close to where I live. It was to include playgrounds, changing rooms, outdoor gym equipment, pedestrian walkway, cycle paths, a pitch and ancillary facilities. We are yet to see that go to planning. We have been talking about it for eight years but, due to the challenge of financing it and some of the land not yet being in local authority ownership, it has not come to fruition.

The Minister of State noted the challenge of purchasing land not currently covered by the sports capital grant. We could have something like the Housing Finance Agency for local authorities to allow them to draw down long-term loans at low interest rates for the purchase of land specifically for community and sporting facilities.

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