Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I have asked successive Ministers for sport about this. Some issues in the boxing area relate to the administrative capacity to get the applications in and get them done. There is no want of political will to support boxing and boxing clubs. There is a bit of work in that regard. I just spoke to the Minister for sport last evening about the next capital grant. For those people who get to the Irish team or whatever, we have a high level of elite sporting supports and grants. We are trying to improve them for those who graduate and are in development squads or development teams. We are developing the league academy in the League of Ireland. A total of €3 million was provided to try to home-grow a competitive League of Ireland and have a pipeline of young talent who can develop in Ireland. All of that is going to be built on and will grow.

There is an issue in Dublin. The local authorities need to be engaged with when it comes to the provision of sporting facilities. Other local authorities around the country do it far better.

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