Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)

With so much money in the State coffers, the Government had the perfect opportunity yesterday to set sport on the right path for the future. It was a striker's dream, an open goal with no opponents and the Government just needed to do its job and put the ball away. Instead, it scuffed its shot, kicked the turf and missed the net in an open goal. I fail to see the logic or rationale as to why the Government would short-change football academies by only allocating €3 million instead of the €4.45 million requested. The Government has agreed with the language and reasoning we in Sinn Féin have put forward in recent debates but it has not followed through with the right amount. I must reiterate that at grassroots and youth level, the opportunities that were there before Brexit no longer exist. Irish players cannot go across the water to larger academies and learn their trade like they used to. Those youths are here, they want to play and learn. They want the opportunity to represent their club and ultimately their country, to the best of their abilities. However, without football academies up and down this country, they will never realise their full potential. Without adequate investment - and the key here is adequate - our League of Ireland academies cannot realise their full potential. I hope that the €3 million is just the start and the multi-annual commitment the Government has made will see further sufficient investment.

The Government has taken its eye off the ball when it comes to the large scale sports infrastructure fund and the community sports facilities fund. Sports facilities is an issue that will dominate much of this Dáil term, with teams and sporting organisations the length and breadth of the State crying out to have playable pitches, never mind new pitches. It is a goal that many teams will aim for, but the Government has made achieving that goal just as difficult now as it was in the past. I am sure some on the Government benches see that the €18.7 million increase in large scale sports infrastructure fund as a victory to be cheered but as the Minister of State has said, there were €665 million worth of applications with only €173 million worth of them approved. The sum of €18.7 million is a drop in the ocean and will not make much more difference. One single application probably costs more than that alone. It will be the never-ending story for it to proceed through the applications at this pace, with this level of funding. The Government could simply have raised much more money to dedicate to sports if both Government parties just kept their election promises. Page 117 of the Fine Gael election manifesto states that the party will increase betting duty from 2% to 3%, raising €50 million. Page 170 of the Fianna Fáil election manifesto states that it will increase the betting tax levy from 2% to 3%, with a portion of the additional yield to be allocated for the development of sports infrastructure. We have both Government parties with broken election promises and with the investment in facilities and academies suffering as a consequence. If the Government is serious about delivering for sport, the Government needs to get its head in the game and think more broadly.

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