Dáil debates

Tuesday, 30 June 2015

Topical Issue Debate

National Lottery Funding Disbursement

7:15 pm

Photo of Mick WallaceMick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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To the best of my knowledge, the Minister of State has done a fair job in distributing lottery money among the different counties but there is a serious issue in Wexford as to where the money goes after it arrives. There is a lot of discontent that it does not seem to be a fair allocation at all times. For example, in 2012 soccer got less than 5% of the money and in 2014 it got 11%. According to an ESRI report on the social and economic value of sport in Ireland, soccer is the team sport with the highest level of participation in the country. Another report on sport and recreational exercise among adults aged 16 and over in Wexford-Wicklow, commissioned by the Irish Sports Council in conjunction with the ESRI, showed that soccer was the most popular sporting activity among over-16s in these counties. According to this report, 6.5% of all adults in this region would choose soccer compared to the combined uptake of Gaelic football and hurling, which weighs in at 4.9%. With regards solely to male participation, 11.9% choose soccer as opposed to 8.1% for Gaelic football and hurling combined.

All sport deserves more help than the Government can find money to give it. Every sport has a huge benefit to society and makes a huge difference to making things work and helping young people to develop in a good, healthy fashion. It is probably one of the best ways of all to fight obesity, which is growing at an astronomical rate in Ireland today. However, the playing field should be level. In Wexford we have an incredible soccer organisation. Our junior league is the second biggest in the country and we have one of the biggest schoolboy sections outside of Dublin. Women's soccer in Wexford is growing at an unprecedented rate and the Wexford women's youth team are the all-Ireland champions and will play in the champions' league this summer in Poland. The amount of young boys and the number of women involved in the sport every weekend is astronomical and from September to May there are approximately 170 games each weekend, an incredible figure. An allocation of less than 5% of the total money in 2012 and just 11% in 2014 compares poorly with how other sports have been dealt with.

I come from a soccer background and many clubs have contacted me looking for fairness. One club, Cloughbawn in Clonroche, which is a really deprived area, has applied every time but, despite having 18 teams, it has not received a penny. The amount of work they put in at local level is incredible but they have failed to get help. The Wexford league itself has looked for money on a few occasions but last year it was turned down because it did not submit a letter stating that it did not need planning permission for what it was doing, which was making pitches. The Gaelic club in the town received more money than all the soccer clubs put together without even owning the site for which it received its grant.

Photo of Michael RingMichael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The sports capital programme is the Government's primary vehicle to support the development of sports facilities and the purchase of sports equipment. This programme has transformed the sporting landscape of Ireland with improvements in the quality and quantity of sporting facilities in every village, town and city in the country. The facilities that have been funded range from the smallest clubs to national centres of sporting excellence. The health benefits of participating in sport are well known and around 90% of SCP grantees report that they have been able to increase participation as a direct result of the facilities developed with these grants.

The 2015 round of the SCP is the third round of the programme since this Government came into office. This reflects the importance that the Government places on sport and on providing opportunities for participation. The fact that almost 1,600 applications were received under the 2015 round of the programme is evidence of the ongoing importance of the programme. These applications are currently being assessed and I expect to announce allocations later this year.

The programme assists voluntary and community organisations along with the national governing bodies of sport, local authorities, ETBs and schools to develop high quality, safe, well-designed, sustainable facilities in suitable locations and to provide equipment to help maximise participation in sport and physical recreation. The programme also prioritises the needs of disadvantaged areas in the provision of sports facilities with over 40% of the 2012 and 2014 SCP allocations going to designated disadvantaged areas. I am very proud of that. I have also given grants totalling €3.225 million to the Irish Amateur Boxing Association, primarily for the provision of basic facilities for boxing clubs, often located in the most disadvantaged areas.

Every application received under the 2015 sports application programme is being assessed against five criteria designed to give higher scores to applications that will increase participation, share facilities, are from designated disadvantaged areas, have not received significant funding in the past and are ready to be developed as soon as possible. In deciding the final allocations to projects within each county, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and I will give consideration to a number of factors, including the performance of each application during the assessment process, ensuring a geographical spread of projects within each county, ensuring a spread of projects between rural and urban areas within each county, and ensuring there is a spread of projects among different sports.

In the lifetime of the Government €88.5 million has been allocated in more than 1,700 separate grants to sporting groups and organisations under the sports capital programme and related special allocations, for example, equipment grants for national governing bodies of sport, local authority shovel-ready projects and the athletics tracks initiative. Since taking office I have ensured every county gets its fair share of the sports capital programme funding available, based on its population, with an adjustment to give slightly more money to counties that had fared less well under previous rounds of the programme, thus making up for historical imbalances in funding. I am more than happy with the distribution of the sports capital programme funding across different sports and the impact that these grants will have on participation during my time as Minister of State with responsibility for sport.

7:25 pm

Photo of Mick WallaceMick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State, for whom I have two questions. What month will he announce the allocation of funding this year? Will he make some kind of commitment that the actual numbers participating in the different sports might be considered when he is deciding how to divvy up the money this time round? The people involved in soccer in Wexford are of the opinion that if I were not in the Dáil, they would probably get more money. If that is the case, it is probably not a good sign in terms of accountability, transparency and how things are done. I am not laying it at the Minister of State's door, but there is a feeling among the soccer fraternity in the county that politics is at work and soccer has fared poorly. They think my presence here has not helped the situation. Sadly, I suspect they may be right. The figures speak for themselves, with less than a 5% allocation in 2012 and 11% in 2014 for the biggest sport in the county. It does not look well. It would be very hard for me, no matter which side of the House I was on, to defend the figures when challenged by people in the soccer fraternity. I hope as much fairness as possible will apply on the next occasion.

Photo of Michael RingMichael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I refute what Deputy Wallace said about him being on the far side of the House. It makes no difference who is on what side of the House. I am very proud of the way I have allocated this funding in this sports capital programme. I am the first Minister of State to do it per capita. I am putting in on the record of the House that it will be accepted by every future Minister that they cannot do it any other way. I am doing that against my own county and area simply because every county is to get its fair share. No other Minister had the courage or the guts to do what I did. I took the counties that did very well over recent years, particularly counties which had Ministers, and I penalised them. I gave it to the smaller counties and the counties which had done badly and I am proud of that.

I am amazed Deputy Wallace speaks about soccer. The board of the FAI wrote to me and thanked me for the fairness in the way in which I administered the sports capital programme.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Be careful.

Photo of Michael RingMichael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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It thanked me for the funding I gave to soccer. Let me finish.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Go handy.

Photo of Michael RingMichael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Last year I also gave a special allocation.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Did Delaney ring you?

Photo of Michael RingMichael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I do not know what is wrong with Deputy Wallace's county-----

Photo of Mick WallaceMick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I do.

Photo of Michael RingMichael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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-----but he should talk to John Delaney. I gave the FAI €1.2 million and I let it pick the six counties. I am very disappointed none of the projects was in Deputy Wallace's county.

Photo of Mick WallaceMick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I do not give two hoots about Westport.

Photo of Michael RingMichael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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There must be something wrong with-----

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Deputy Wallace is spending too much time in Dublin.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State should take advice before he proceeds. He should speak to a senior Minister before he says any more.

Photo of Jim DalyJim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State, without interruption.

Photo of Michael RingMichael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I am very proud of my record. The second or third thing I want to say, and I want the Deputies to remember this, is that there was no programme since 2008. I want Deputies to listen to this. We gave a commitment in the programme for Government. We got two.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The Government let FIFA decide where the money went.

Photo of Michael RingMichael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I tell the Deputies one thing, I went back to the Ministers, Deputies Noonan and Howlin, and I negotiated a third round. The Deputies should be saying to me, "well done", but instead of that they are being parochial and are talking about a few little projects.

Photo of Mick WallaceMick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I am only asking for advice.

Photo of Michael RingMichael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Wallace mentioned one himself that was invalid. If I took them out, and they were invalid, he would be the first one up there and on RTE crying and giving out that I had taken out invalid projects. None of those which were invalid will be grant aided. They were not grant aided in the last round and they will not be grant aided in the next round if they are invalid. Deputy Wallace should be assisting the clubs and helping them to fill out the forms rather than expecting me to take them out if they are invalid.

Photo of Mick WallaceMick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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So a couple of Ministers decide which sport gets it again.

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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He is letting John Delaney decide who gets the money.

Photo of Jim DalyJim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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That concludes the Topical Issue debate.