Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Malcolm Noonan, for being present for this Topical Issue. This is an issue I raised previously and it has still not been addressed. Frankly, ostensibly it should be a Dublin City Council issue but in the absence of actions I have been forced to bring it to the Chamber once again. I believe I raised it with the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan.

Sheriff YC in the north inner city is a football team that caters to some of the most vulnerable children in the area. It provides leadership, an outlet and at this present moment it is operating without any pitches. We are talking about at least 60 or 70 kids who every single weekend have had their games called off.

To give some context, in November the pitches on which they previously played on Alfie Byrne Road were destroyed as a consequence of a half marathon that was organised by a different group. It was organised I think by Clontarf running club and sponsored by Joe Duffy motors. The start and end point of that took place literally on the children's pitch. It destroyed the pitch. Nobody could have foreseen that would happen but it should have been addressed. Dublin City Council made a commitment that it would be. However, up till this point it has not. That pitch remains unplayable. East Wall use the pitches also.

Sheriff YC also plays in Fairview park. Clontarf cycle lane is being built and as a consequence of that the railings around Fairview park have been taken down by Dublin City Council to facilitate the works. In January this year a stolen car was able to penetrate the railings of Fairview park, go up and skid all over the pitches of Sheriff YC, East Wall and Marino. It absolutely obliterated them. Therefore, the pitches they previously had on Alfie Byrne Road are gone and the other pitches in Fairview park have now been destroyed. That means in the north inner city, children who play for Sheriff YC, East Wall and Marino and a couple of other clubs, have absolutely nowhere to play their games.

This has been relayed to Dublin City Council on a number of occasions. Its response was that the pitch experienced superficial damage. The children who will not be playing this weekend, last weekend or next weekend, do not consider the damage to be in any way superficial because it prohibits them from playing the sport they love. The club has been forced to book pitches in the Athletic Union League, AUL, complex but that is at an astronomical cost and is not being covered by Dublin City Council. It should be.

Dublin City Council made commitments to Sheriff YC initially that it would source alternative pitches on Clontarf astroturf which is operated by Dublin City Council. To date however, that has not materialised. Sheriff YC has engaged with the astroturf facility and has been told that Dublin City Council made one phonecall but the pitches are booked out. I am left in a dilemma. I am advocating to Dublin City Council but I have no remit to Dublin City Council. It does not have to respond to me and it has not. Therefore I am taking this issue into the Chamber. It should not be dealt with here but we are desperate.

I appreciate the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, is stepping in for the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne. I need the Minister of State with responsibility for sports to intervene here because we are trying desperately to give children an outlet in the north inner city for all sorts of reasons. The connection they have to those clubs is invaluable. The work done by Sheriff YC is honestly incredible. I am a beneficiary of it myself. More to the point, every Saturday and Sunday morning those pitches were used twice a week by the kids, their families and everybody. They are not now and games are being called off. If they lose that connection we will suffer and the kids will suffer for it. It is becoming urgent. I ask the Minister of State to intervene.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I am taking the matter on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, who has noted with dismay the reports of recent vandalism and damage to the sports facilities in Dublin.

I saw some of the reporting on it myself. It was more than superficial damage, from my view of it. I cannot stress enough the importance and value of such facilities to local communities.

The maintenance and management of the sports facilities of Dublin City Council is a matter for the local authority. The Department has been informed by DCC that the regime of annual pitch improvement works carried out over the past few years has improved the resilience of the playing surfaces to, and acted to protect the pitches from, excessive damage when recently vandalised. DCC also confirms that a sports turf contractor was engaged to carry out works last week, which has improved the surface and ameliorated much of the damage. That is welcome.

Increasing the level of participation in sport and physical activity across the whole population is a fundamental aim of the Government's National Sports Policy 2018-2027 and a priority for the Minister, Deputy Martin, and the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne. In pursuit of that objective, the Government is committed to a "sport for all" approach aimed at ensuring that all persons have the opportunity to partake equally in sport and physical activity, regardless of gender, age, social-economic status, disability or membership of minority groups such as the LGBTI+ community, the Traveller community or other ethnic minorities.

The Dormant Accounts Fund sports programme is the primary funding stream deployed exclusively to promote increased sports participation among disadvantaged communities and people with a disability. This programme provides financial supports to a wide range of locally inspired community projects undertaken by local sports clubs, associations and other interested parties generally, under the active guidance of the 29 local sports partnerships around the country.

The sports capital and equipment programme is the primary vehicle for Government support for the development of sports and recreation facilities and the purchase of non-personal sports equipment throughout the country. Over 13,000 projects have now benefited from sports capital funding since 1998, bringing the total allocations in that time to over €1.15 billion. We all agree that the SCEP has transformed the sporting landscape with improved facilities in every town and village in the country. The programme for Government commits to continuing the SCEP and to targeting the investment in disadvantaged areas. As well as being open to individual sports clubs, applications are accepted from local authorities. Dublin City Council has previously received significant grant funding for sports facilities projects, including sports pitches used by football clubs. The maximum grant available under the SCEP has been increased to €500,000. The latest round of the SCEP closed for applications on Friday, 8 September 2023. A preliminary examination of the submitted applications demonstrates that the programme has again generated a very large number of applications. The total number of 3,210 applications exceeded the record number submitted in the previous round. This includes ten applications from Dublin City Council, which is welcome.

The scoring assessment and assessment manual for the 2023 round has been finalised and published along with the full list of applications received by county, including the relevant sport type for each application received. The detailed assessment work has commenced, and it is planned to assess the "equipment-only" applications first and announce those grants in the coming months. Work will then commence on assessing the capital applications, with allocations likely to be announced later in 2024.

Any application for funding will be considered on its merits, based on the agreed scoring system. As the Deputy will be aware, the schemes favour projects that will increase participation and sharing of facilities among a number of sports and clubs, and priority is always given to applications from disadvantaged areas. The criterion the Deputy spoke about of the clubs all sharing these grounds is critical. As he said, many of the young people participating are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Again, what happened is very unfortunate. It constitutes criminal damage to the grounds, which is a disgrace. The work DCC has done is helping to build that resilience in pitches so they can be repaired more easily.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. Dublin City Council has done a lot of great work around the north inner city and the city more generally - there is no disputing that - but there has been an omission in respect of soccer pitches for predominantly working-class kids in and around the city centre. There is no 11-a-side pitch in the north inner city at all. There is an AstroTurf facility in Grangegorman. It is extraordinarily expensive, at €190 per game. There is the AUL Complex, where there are similar expenses.

The pitch was destroyed; it will not be possible to use it. It is not the first time vandalism has taken place on the pitch. In this instance Dublin City Council took down the gate. There was negligence involved on its part in not preserving the environment. I just want the pitches finished. I appreciate that nothing can happen overnight. There is a Taoiseach's task force specifically set up for the north inner city that has allocated a significant amount of funds, but that has not materialised in terms of sporting infrastructure, and not enough of an emphasis has been placed on that.

What I will convey to the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, to the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, and, if I must, to the Taoiseach is that we cannot lose these kids from sport. For the young boys and girls who play there, it is a discipline they are getting. It is a social outlet twice during the week and then on the weekend, and we need that to stay there. At a minimum, I would like to see the office of the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, engage with the clubs themselves. I may potentially bring together a meeting between the clubs and Dublin City Council. I do not even need to be in the room for that meeting. We must find some outlet by which those kids can play football - home games - this weekend or next. If it is the case that Sheriff YC has to source alternative AstroTurf accommodation for their home games, that will mean an increase in subs for the kids, and many of those kids are living in varying degrees of poverty. They cannot afford the extra tenner or fiver that may come with that. Two kids on the team are brother and sister. The families will in no way be able to meet their costs, and Sheriff YC is certainly not carrying the cash either. May we please just agree that the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, will engage with the clubs and the city council and find some degree of resolution? I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, for his response.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The Deputy has made a good suggestion. I will take it back to the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne. Critically, it would be important that DCC would engage with the clubs and try to find a solution, particularly when incidents such as this occur because they can leave a pitch unplayable for quite some time. The capital grants I spoke about will allow the works to be carried out on these pitches to make them playable. It can be quite significant to get drainage and all those issues resolved. It is really unfortunate. Okay, one of the incidents the Deputy spoke about was unavoidable, but the second incident, of which I saw reports, was terrible. The pitch was ploughed up to a point where it will make it very difficult. Thankfully, the remedial works the council has carried out will help. It is critical, when significant funding is going into the capital programme, that there is an opportunity for clubs to share facilities around Dublin city. That is what they are there for. DCC should engage on that as a starting point, but I will take the Deputy's comments back to the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, to see if there is an opportunity for him to intervene as well.