Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)

Deputy Ward is never happier than when he is following St. Pat's but I hope he is not too happy on Friday night. Best of luck to City.

The growth in the League of Ireland is a welcome development in recent years. More and more people are interested in and are going to games. In terms of the League of Ireland and our national team, we need to examine the issue of academies. It is not for nothing that we are not in the place we want to be in terms of international football. The two are connected and we need to ensure the investment happens.

There is increased interest across the State in swimming following the success of Daniel Wiffen and so on. The infrastructure in our cities and towns is nowhere near good enough in terms of access. People are waiting a very long time to get swimming lessons for their kids. In the vast majority of cases, they are privately provided through hotels, private centres and so on. There are 17 leisure centres in Belfast City Council's area, but only three in Cork city. Belfast is about 70% larger than Cork, but it is not five times bigger. There is a huge discrepancy which I believe is replicated right across the State . We need to examine not only Cork but the situation right across the board in terms of the provision of publicly provided leisure centres. Clubs in Togher and Ballyphehane will be looking at applications for sports capital grants when they are released, but we also need to be looking of the municipal provision of sports facilities because we are way behind other jurisdictions in that regard.

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