Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an deis an t-eolas is deánaí a thabhairt don Teach faoi na pleananna forbartha atá againn don spórt agus táim ag súil le tuairimí na Dála a chloisteáil. I am glad to be here for these statements on investments in sport, a sector which is vital to our society both at local and national levels, and on the major sports events that Ireland hosts.

The community sport facilities fund, CSFF, is the primary means of providing Government funding to sport and community organisations at local, regional and national levels. The fund aims to foster an integrated and planned approach to the development of sports and physical recreation facilities and assists the purchase of non-personal sports equipment. The fund was previously known as the sports capital and equipment programme, which operated on an annual basis from 1998 to 2008. It resumed in 2012 with rounds in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2023. As the programme has evolved, increasing amounts have been made available to support new or improved facilities. Over 19,000 projects have benefited from sports capital funding since 1998, bringing the total allocations in that time to over €1.4 billion. These grants have directly improved sports facilities in every village, town and city and I have been fortunate, as have Members across the House, to see many of these for myself in our parishes since I was appointed Minister of State in recent months.

The 2023 round of the CSFF received 3,211 applications and saw nearly €278 million allocated to 3,046 sports clubs and facilities, benefiting over 40 sports, as well as multisport facilities throughout the country. As in previous rounds, grants were available to voluntary, not-for profit sports clubs, community groups, national governing bodies, NGBs, and local authorities. Third level colleges, education and training boards, ETBs and schools could also apply for funding jointly with sports clubs or organisations. Under CSFF 2023, applicants for local projects could apply for up to €200.000, which was increased from the previous maximum grant of €150,000. Maintenance equipment grants were capped at €40,000 and equipment grants of over €70,000 are only awarded in exceptional circumstances such as to NGBs. The maximum valid grant available for projects deemed to be of regional significance was increased from €300,000 to €500,000.

The large scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF, was established on foot of the National Sports Policy 2018-2027, which was published in 2018. The aim of the fund is to provide Exchequer support for larger sports facility projects. These are projects where the Exchequer investment is greater than the maximum amount available under the CSFF. In some cases, these are projects where the primary objective is to increase active participation in sport. In other cases, these are large scale venues or stadia where the focus is more related to social participation and high-performance sport. The scheme has a particular focus on NGBs of sport and local authorities. New swimming pool projects are also considered.

The first allocations under the LSSIF were announced in January 2020 with €86 million awarded to 33 different projects at that time. Additional funding of €37.5 million was then allocated to 27 of these projects in December 2023, bringing the total awarded under this first round of funding under the fund to €124 million. The 2024 round of LSSIF received an unprecedented demand for funding, amounting to €665 million from 96 applications. Grants totalling €173 million, benefiting 35 individual projects, were allocated under this second funding round in November last year. With this announcement, the cumulative investment from the LSSIF since 2020 now reaches €297 million. Since the inception of the fund, a number of outstanding facilities have opened to the public and it is plain to see that this benefits society. Projects of significance that have opened since the fund began include the linear walkway and playing fields project in County Meath, phase 1 of Walsh Park in Waterford, the Munster Technological University athletics track in Cork and the redevelopment of St. Conleth’s GAA park in County Kildare.

Significant projects due to open shortly include the Connacht Rugby stadium, Munster Rugby Centre of Excellence, which will officially open this weekend and Askeaton Pool and Leisure Centre.

Before I turn to major sports events, I would first of all like to touch on the related topic of sports diplomacy. In May this year, I was delighted to launch with the Minister, Deputy O’Donovan and the Tánaiste, the first international sports diplomacy framework for Ireland. The framework sets out a vision for Ireland’s approach to international sports diplomacy and recognises the unique power of sport to bring different nations and cultures together and to build connections between communities around the world. It is designed to establish Ireland as a sporting hub and to help build our reputation as a premier sporting nation, while fostering opportunities for international partnerships, cultural exchange and diaspora engagement.

The goals of the framework are to elevate Ireland’s international reputation as a sporting nation; to promote and increase a positive awareness of Ireland overseas to use sport, including our traditional sports, to foster our diaspora’s connection to Ireland; to support international sporting partnerships and co-operation in line with Ireland’s values and interests; and to maximise the economic benefits of our engagement in, and hosting of, international sports. The framework commits to developing a sports diplomacy strategy. My Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have established a steering group to drive this forward.

It is in this context that I note that major international sports events can play a key role in increasing sporting participation, encouraging domestic and international tourism and promoting Ireland as a destination for education and business opportunities. They present a wonderful opportunity to showcase Ireland and our world-class tourism and sports infrastructure to Europe and the wider world. This was evidenced just last Sunday when Ireland hosted the first-ever American National Football League regular season game in Croke Park. The event was another endorsement of Ireland’s capability to host world-class events and further established Ireland as a premier destination for major international sporting events. It is estimated that the American football game last weekend attracted more than 30,000 international visitors to Ireland and I look forward to receiving the post-event economic assessment soon. Anyone that was around the city or around the country subsequently would certainly have felt the impact of the game and the many visitors that came from abroad to attend it.

The pre-event economic assessment, commissioned by Fáilte Ireland, projected that the event would generate more than €64 million in additional economic activity for Ireland and the headline outcome data will be available to us in the coming weeks. The event provided global exposure for Dublin and Ireland with the live broadcast audience for the game likely to have exceeded 5 million viewers in the US alone. I saw figures in online newspapers today indicating it had the largest viewership for an overseas American football game so far. The game was also broadcast live in Ireland and the UK and social media content from both teams and the NFL featured very strongly across a range of platforms in the lead-in to the game, as well as on game day itself.

The hosting of this event aligns strongly with the programme for Government commitment to "strengthen our political, cultural, economic and trade relationship with the US at all levels". Major sports events offer unique opportunities to forge new ties, strengthen existing ones and are ideal for developing partnerships and promoting Ireland. This is very much proven by the powerful bonds that are being created by, for example, the College Football Classic football game, which is now much more than a game and fosters widespread connections in business, education and culture when those events take place each August. Similar relationships are being developed through the hosting of other events and that is among the reasons the Government continues to support the hosting of major sports events in Ireland and to explore further hosting opportunities. This is demonstrated by the support being provided for a number of events such as the very successful College Football Classic series, which has been running annually since 2022. The series delivers strong all-island tourism benefits with attendees visiting every corner of the country before and after the games. The first-ever NFL regular season game at Croke Park last Sunday when the Pittsburgh Steelers hosted the Minnesota Vikings and the UEFA Europa League final that took place in Dublin last year brought a significant economic boost to the country, with over 54% of attendees coming from abroad and a substantial global viewership of 49.5 million. This final gives us a taste of what the UEFA Euro 2028 championship will be like when we host games in Dublin in three years. This will be the largest sporting event Ireland has ever jointly staged. It will also be the largest single international sporting event held in Ireland. Ireland will also jointly host the T20 Cricket World Cup with the United Kingdom in 2030 and I expect this to be a real "all island" event. The events of the weekend just gone, with Shane Lowry and Rory Mcllroy spearheading Europe’s victory in the Ryder Cup in New York, and we were also represented by young John Doyle from Cork in the Junior Ryder Cup, were a clear reminder that Ireland’s hosting of this huge event in Limerick in 2027 is just around the corner. I will touch on that in some more detail.

Ireland’s hosting of the 2027 Ryder Cup in Adare, County Limerick will be truly special. It will be the centenary hosting of this biennial match and it will deliver very strong returns for Ireland in terms of economy, long-term tourism benefits and business and other transatlantic networking opportunities. Last week, I had the pleasure of being in New York to support the European team as it readied for the drama that we all saw on our TV screens over the weekend. While I returned home on Thursday before the competitive action started, the visit afforded me the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of the scale, standard, benefits and logistical challenge of hosting this major sporting event. It also allowed me to witness the contribution Ireland has to offer on the international golf stage and to promote Ireland as the next host of the Ryder Cup with the assistance of Tourism Ireland. Local service delivery stakeholders representing organisations such as An Garda Síochána, Limerick City and County Council and the National Transport Authority, who attended an observer programme to better understand what is required to deliver an event of the scale of the Ryder Cup, were also in New York. These stakeholders will take their learnings away and plan for the successful hosting of the event in Adare Manor in 2027.

The Government and the European Tour have agreed a financial support package that involves investment in Irish golf tour events, marketing for the Ryder Cup itself and golf in Ireland generally. To strengthen the professional game in Ireland in the run-up to the event, additional financial support of €8.5 million is also being provided for professional golf events, the Irish Open and the Challenge and Legends tour events scheduled to take place annually in Ireland up to, and including, 2027. Although the competition is played between Europe and the USA, the Ryder Cup always attracts interest from wherever golf is played throughout the world. As the event in 2027 gets closer, work is under way to ensure a smooth delivery. One of our aims for the project is to secure long-term legacy benefits for the Limerick region and golf in Ireland as a whole.

Golf has a very important role in sport for Ireland. As Deputies may know, Ireland is an island paradise for golfers with an astonishing one third of all the world’s natural links courses and some iconic parkland courses as well. Adare Manor is an example of the world-class golf courses that can be found throughout Ireland, where over 400 courses are dotted throughout our scenic landscape. Events like the Ryder Cup help increase participation in the sport and will only strengthen what is a growing sport in Ireland. In 2019, for example, Ireland welcomed 237,000 golf tourists to the country. Those visits generated around €230 million for the economy. Those golf tourists accounted for over 2.2 million bed nights in our hospitality sector. International golf tourism is worth more than €300 million to the economy. Fáilte Ireland research shows that a golf visitor typically spends three times more than the average leisure tourist.

The Ryder Cup is one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world and the staging of the biennial tournament at Adare Manor will deliver another major boost to the appeal of Ireland as a world-class golf and tourist destination. Over the coming years, Tourism Ireland will roll out an extensive programme of promotions in key international golf markets to leverage the tourism benefits of the event. As part of hosting the Ryder Cup in 2027 and other possible major golf events in the future, my Department, in partnership with Sport Ireland and Golf Ireland, has developed a comprehensive golf legacy programme created to gain awareness of the benefits of the sport and to increase participation.

Driving this work is a Ryder Cup Government steering group, which facilitates a central government approach to resolving any issue which may arise. This group is made up of all Government stakeholders, along with Golf Ireland, which have roles to play in the successful hosting of the event. The group is chaired by the former Secretary General to the Government and current ambassador to Great Britain, Martin Fraser.

I want to touch on some key sports policy areas that will be of interest to all Members. Increasing participation in sport and ensuring accessibility of sport for all is a key priority for the Government, as it is for people in communities throughout the country. In this regard, I want to highlight that the rate of active sports participation among adults is now 49%, the highest it has ever been. It is also heartening to note that the participation gap between men and women is now below 3%. This progress is due in no small part to substantial Government investment in sport over recent years. In 2018, the national sports policy committed to doubling funding in sport to more than €220 million by 2027, and I am very pleased that this target has been reached two years ahead of schedule. Budget 2025 had an allocation of over €230 million for sport, and I hope to increase that again, given demands for specific additional funding across sport for some key initiatives and the fact of an increasing population.

Core funding of our national governing bodies for sport, local sports partnerships and other funded sporting bodies has also grown strongly. The figure of €31 million in core funding in 2025 is a 76% increase on 2018, when the national sports policy was published. This increased investment will assist in ensuring the long-term sustainability of our sporting organisations, and will enable the sector to continue to deliver increased opportunities for people to participate in a wide variety of sports. Most importantly, it empowers people on a volunteer basis in communities throughout the country to make sport what it is today. There is no doubt, and it is important to acknowledge in the Chamber today, that this is the core lifeblood of sporting participation throughout the country.

Day in and day out, people take time out of their evenings to participate in clubs, train young people and ensure the facilities for which they fund-raise, and which the Government significantly works to enable them to develop, are utilised in a way that delivers the outcome we all want, which is to see people enjoy life, be active in life and be healthy with their wellbeing enhanced as a result. I acknowledge and pay tribute to everybody throughout the country who tonight, this evening, every day this week, on Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon and next Sunday will ensure that so many people throughout the country have the opportunity to participate in sport and benefit from it, as a result of them being so generous with their time and their talents.

In terms of high-performance sport, we have allocated €27 million across Sport Ireland's high-performance programmes for 2025, including €4.5 million in direct support for athletes through the carding scheme. This is in line with the Government's target of delivering €30 million per annum for high performance sport by 2027. We need to up our ambition in this regard, given the challenges of competing in far-distant Olympiads in Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032, and we will not be found wanting in this regard. For the Paris Olympics cycle, which ran from 2021 to 2024, the Government provided a record level of investment of approximately €89 million towards high-performance sport. This was a substantial increase on the €59 million investment in the previous Tokyo cycle. We very much saw this feed through in the performance of our athletes in all disciplines.

Recently, it was wonderful to see our first medal in field sports at the World Athletics Championships, with Kate O'Connor in the heptathlon. In recent weeks we have also seen success in many other sports, from rowing to athletics. That is something we want to see continue, and that we encourage through investing in athletes to be at the very top level internationally, building on the opportunity, which is key, for them to start off the journey at community level and local club level.

Finances are only one part of the puzzle. Proper support for dual careers for athletes is also really important. Over the past two decades, there has been an increase in the number of high-performance athletes engaging in third level education. The short- and long-term value of gaining an academic qualification in advance of athletic retirement has been well-documented.

The Government is committed to a sport for all approach, aimed at ensuring that all persons can partake equally in sport and physical activity. This commitment is reaffirmed in the programme for Government and is reflected in Sport Ireland's Women in Sport policy. In support of this commitment, we are investing €4 million this year to fund projects and initiatives across a wide range of sports and to deliver outcomes where women have an equal opportunity to achieve their full potential, while enjoying a lifelong involvement in sport.

We are also seeing a consistent increase in female representation at sport leadership level year on year, with the overall percentage of women on the boards of sports organisations standing at 48% today, compared to just 24% in 2019. It is important to have visible examples of leadership in both the arena and in the boardroom.

Disability in sport continues to be a key focus, and support for those with disabilities to participate in sport is important to me and the Department. A total of €10 million has also been allocated to sport under the Dormant Accounts Fund for 2025, and this funding will, in particular, drive inclusion, participation and access to sporting opportunities for those with disabilities. Sport Ireland's recently published Statement of Commitment and Action to Disability Inclusion in Sport, and the appointment of a new disability in sport lead, will be key drivers in meeting our targets for increased participation among those with a long-term illness or a disability over the coming years. Swimming continues to be one of the most popular sports and recreational activities for people with a disability. The national swimming strategy, published in August last year, is an example to all sports as to how we can develop a suite of actions to increase access for people with disabilities and improve the culture of inclusion.

I thank the House for the opportunity and for scheduling this debate today. I very much look forward to the contributions of Members. It is important to each and every Member, many of whom participate in sport, and all understand the value of it. Collectively we have seen massive progress over the past generation. There remains much untapped potential, which collectively we must all strive to ensure is achieved. I look forward to the contributions of Members and to working with them in the time ahead to try to build on the progress we have seen in recent times. Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.

See this speech in context