Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)

I have not had any engagement with LMETB. The Department or the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, who unfortunately cannot be here today, may well have had some engagement with it. I am not sure about that but I can check afterwards. I do not disagree with what the Deputy said with regard to investment. Every single person who comes in for these questions on sport has a catalogue of things he or she wants implemented. It is not a couple of hundred million euro I would need, but rather a couple of hundred billion euro, which is not practical.

Acknowledgement should be given – at least the Deputy did so – that the report which highlighted the League of Ireland’s potential with regard to academies was funded by the State. At the moment, most of the operating costs are being funded by the State. The State entered into an MOU with the FAI in good faith in order to keep the organisation operable because we need an association that can govern football in Ireland and ensure we have teams that can represent the country at home and abroad with distinction. In recent years, that can has been carried by the State and it will be carried for another while. We cannot just glaze over that and say there is no investment; there is substantial investment in this area.

See this speech in context