Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

You learn something new about your colleagues every day in this House. Every euro spent on sports funding is money well spent. At a time when there is a housing emergency, the Government must concentrate on the provision of the largest number of houses possible, but as I have said before in the House, this cannot be done without the proper social infrastructure, including sport. By investing in sport as one of the pillars of any social infrastructure, this will allow new houses to become inclusive communities, something which must become a target for all of us in the House.

A growing problem for many sports clubs that I deal with is the lack of additional playing fields. I have used the example of my hometown of Athy in the House, where many clubs, including Gaelic football, soccer and rugby, are struggling to cater for the growing number of teams they have given their current facilities. Unfortunately, the local camogie club, catering for over 300 young women playing that great game, has no facilities of its own and is dependent on the goodwill of the other local GAA clubs to train and play their matches.

Thankfully, we have a solution in Athy. As a former county councillor, I, along with my then colleagues, identified 13 acres of land that could be designed as local authority playing pitches and provide a solution to the growing demand from all these clubs, the local camogie club in particular. The current elected representatives in the area, including my colleagues, Councillors Aoife Breslin and Mark Leigh, have progressed this idea and allocated some LPT funding to the project. This would be an ideal pilot project for the Government to get involved with and is one I hope the Minister of State will support. Like Athy, many other towns in Kildare and throughout the State have the same problem. The Government, through the local authorities, now needs to lead in the provision of additional playing pitches through investment, the sports capital programme and the large-scale investment programme.

We need also to continue to invest in stadiums in this country. I have seen the difference in investment in my county grounds has made. The Minister of State mentioned Cedral St. Conleth's Park in Newbridge. The GAA is so important to our communities and our county grounds should reflect the pride that so many of us have in our county teams.

While League of Ireland teams continue to do us proud in Europe, some clubs have to switch to another stadium to host their home matches. Given the money now available to these clubs in Europe, the Government and private industry must look to investing in more of the stadiums in the League of Ireland.

Our successes on the international stage must be reflected in the facilities on offer for our elite athletes and those many aspiring athletes. The continued development of Abbotstown and ensuring we have the facilities for all sports to train and develop their athletes must be the ambition of this Government and all future governments. As the film stated, "Build it and they will come". The benefit to this country of participation in sport cannot be taken lightly and we must continue to see the investment at every possible opportunity.

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