John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

A number of Deputies have noted the recent sporting achievements of many Irish athletes. I take the opportunity to congratulate Fiona Murtagh, a Galway native, who was successful in the World Rowing Championships in the single sculls grade. She is an Olympian. I think this may be her second world title, but it is certainly a notable achievement and deserves congratulations.

I echo the sentiments of many speakers about how advantageous and beneficial this programme is to communities in terms of the availability and the significant improvements made in the quality and quantity of sporting facilities in communities across the country. It is money well spent. The fact that the community has to come up with resources itself embellishes the scheme and generates a sense of community surrounding a project. This is also welcome.

Also welcome, of course, is the increased participation in sport and the increase in the variety of sports now available to children. In my youth, what was offered was quite limited. There was football, soccer, and perhaps rugby and hurling. Beyond that, though, sport really was not an option for many people. The variety of sports now available for young people is certainly something I think this scheme has helped to create. It is beneficial for all young people and for people of every age group. I share Deputy Devlin's sentiment: it would be good to know when the next iteration of the process will open and if we can get that information, it would help.

The new primary school curriculum doubles the teaching time provided for PE. While most people will welcome that change, we must recognise that many schools do not have adequate facilities for teaching PE. Certainly, very few schools have indoor facilities of the standard required, and many schools have very limited outdoor facilities. More modern schools have facilities, but older schools do not. I will make a point about the next iteration of this process.

As part of the criteria, it should be an advantage for your project if you will provide access to your local primary schools to use the facility at no charge. If we could include that in the criteria, it would be beneficial.

We need to examine the charging regime the local authorities that have availed of this scheme are employing for the use of those facilities by the community groups who use them. Anecdotally, I have heard that many of those groups are paying a lot of money to use those facilities. Those facilities have been grant-aided by the Government. An examination of that is necessary.

The programme for Government commits the Government to an "audit of sports facilities to address shortages in areas underserved including towns with populations over 1,500." We should progress that. Many people have mentioned where there are certain locations within their constituencies that do not have adequate facilities. We should pinpoint those.

In the past, there used be a rapid top-up for the sports capital grant. I am not sure if that came from the Minister of State's Department or the Department of community. Of course, that helped to develop facilities in disadvantaged communities. We should look at trying to bring that back.

On a local point, the Minister of State met a group regarding an LSSIF grant in Galway. We might discuss that again. It relates to the aquatic centre in Knocknacarra.

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