Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State's announcement on the next round. It is a joy to visit any of our sporting clubs on a Saturday morning and see the huge numbers of people participating. Clubs who have relatively good facilities and even county boards with good facilities are always talking to us about the pressure on their grounds and their need for additional facilities.

It is welcome to see more and more participation in sport by young girls. I attended three county camogie finals in Cavan a few weeks ago and saw the crowd and the numbers. Each team was able to line out more than 30 on the panel. In my county and in Monaghan, a huge effort is made to encourage participation.

The sports grounds and county grounds are made available as well to camogie and ladies' football, which was not always the way in the past. Working together, the men's games and the ladies' games, football and camogie, helps big time to increase participation, which is good for everybody.

The last two rounds have been particularly beneficial. A lot of good work has been done but costs are continuing to rise. When assessments are being done, I ask the Minister to ensure that costs are taken into account.

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