Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)

I often stand up here to debate the challenges facing Government Ministers. I am on the record in conversation with the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, and I again commend him and previous Governments on their investment in sports facilities. I know of a number of pockets of County Kildare where the population has doubled in 20 years. The county has one of the youngest populations in the country. We have seen investments coming from the Government in a number of sports facilities. I take the opportunity to thank the Minister of State and the Government for that investment. It is paying off tenfold in the participation rates of children and young people in sports that they previously would not have had the opportunity to engage in. Whether it is in GAA clubs or in Prosperous Lawn Tennis Club, for example, it works. Investment in services like this really pays off.

However, I would be lying to the Minister of State if I did not say it is imperfect. What is happening is that there is a hierarchy in communities whereby some clubs have been on the receiving end of grants and others do not seem able to tap into that service. Prosperous United soccer club is one of those that has a burgeoning population of members and needs to upgrade its facilities. It would be remiss of me not to highlight this. I acknowledge that we need to report and go through the processes. However, quite often, applying for grants in itself requires a workload that many volunteer boards just cannot take. It is worth mentioning. I do not have an answer for the Minister of State. I just want to highlight that this can often be a barrier to accessing this fund.

There have been many contributions today. I ask the Minister of State to take note of the issue of the public swimming pool for north Kildare, which has been promised by many Governments to the communities in Celbridge, Leixlip, Maynooth and Kilcock, as he is aware. Can we get an update in writing at some point in the next couple of weeks as to where he and the Department see this project as currently standing? We are talking about tens of thousands of people without access to a public swimming pool. If the Government can invest, I guarantee that people will participate.

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