Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State for facilitating this debate. In this House, there often are very different opinions on matters discussed. The one thing we can all agree on is the positive benefits of sport, which are vast. I always make the point that sport is a great character-building hobby for young people and individuals. It helps them tremendously through their self-development and teaches them many good-quality life skills in terms of the importance of hard work, discipline, commitment and giving something your all. It also teaches them that we do not always win in life and must try again, redouble our efforts and do everything we can to succeed. Sport teaches us of all those qualities.

I always make the point that every euro the Government spends on sport is a euro very well spent. In many cases, it can divert young people away from antisocial behaviour and give them a positive outlet for their energies. It really is so positive. The €0.25 billion-plus allocated last year through the various sports grants was extremely positive news for many local clubs and organisations. The large-scale sport infrastructure fund diverted funds through the national governing bodies and the sports partnerships. All of this funding percolated its way down into communities and they are seeing the extremely positive benefits of it.

We must ensure we continue to have funding set aside to enable us to open up these grants as often as possible. Every Member of this House will be inundated with requests from various clubs and organisations seeking sports funding in the next round.

The clubs are extremely ambitious. They want to continue to develop and enhance their facilities and to make them better. That is something the Government has been very supportive of and it is important that we keep the support going.

If I may, I want to mention one local project. I warn the Minister of State that there will be an application coming in at some point through Cork County Council for a sports complex in Carrigaline, which is my area. It is an extremely important project. Carrigaline is a town with more than 20,000 people and a hinterland of more than 35,000 but does not have a good sports complex. I know the county council and the local community are very determined to try to develop a sports complex. I hope we will be able to make an application for it in the near future. I will discuss it in more detail with the Minister of State in future course.

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