Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister of State for being here. The community sports facilities fund, CSFF, is seen by clubs and groups throughout this country as a vital cog in the revenue raising machine, specifically when it comes to development or expansion works that sports clubs might require in order to grow. I know that in County Kildare, the fund is very much relied upon for the development of pitches, clubhouses and other relevant infrastructure.

In 2024, the Government stated that it allocated more than €250 million to community sports clubs and facilities. I commend the previous Government on its commitment to sport. I wish the Minister of State well as he embarks on a review of this fund. I look forward to seeing the outcome of the review. I can only stress that the number of clubs that have not yet benefited from this fund continue to far outweigh those that have. The Government's continued commitment to sports capital projects should remain a priority.

I raise an issue of critical importance to the governance and oversight of significant sums of public funds taken from the CSFF. Two of my boys play soccer in the Kildare and district underage league, KDUL. I am a proud coach of the Prosperous United under-14 team. It has been the highlight of my week for many years now to take training sessions on a Thursday evening and to prepare for a soccer game on a Saturday morning. It is a unique privilege to play such an important role in the lives of young men and women. I have seen fellow parents dedicate their free time to the development of the game in their local clubs or even at county level. The work ranges from grass cutting to running table quizzes, from registering players to painting dressing rooms and from marking pitches to making burgers, all for the kids. One can imagine the collective shock and concern when we read Mark Tighe's excellent reporting in the Sunday Independent of alleged financial irregularities that have been ongoing for many years in Kildare underage soccer. Questions first arose about the KDUL finances when Ian Mallon wrote about it for the Irish Examiner in 2023. The media have been asking questions for many years. The clubs have been asking questions. It is time for answers to be forthcoming.

I will focus on one specific area that I hope the Minister of State will be able to examine. The interim KDUL committee has commissioned forensic accountants to examine the bank accounts of the league because it is reported that the league's assets were transferred to a separate legal entity, the KDUL Academy CLG, between 2020 and 2024. I am going to repeat that. The league's assets were transferred to a separate legal entity. The league is simply made up of thousands of kids, parents and volunteers. Despite paying annual subscriptions, a portion of which were kicked up to the KDUL committee, it was reported that the league had no assets in 2022 apart from a set of gear. A sports capital grant of €350,000 was awarded to the KDUL to develop a new facility in 2006. It was not the intention of the Minister of the day to award such a grant to the KDUL Academy but to the thousands of players in clubs throughout Kildare who should have this facility available to them but do not.

Thanks to the dedication of the interim executive, football continues to flourish in Kildare. However, on behalf of the children and young people, the parents and volunteers in Kildare want what is rightfully theirs handed over. The executive has sent the Department correspondence which outlines some observations and questions, and I appreciate the Minister of State taking the time to acknowledge this. Will he commit to meeting the interim executive when it publishes the independent report? Will he commit to re-examining the €350,000 sports capital grant awarded to KDUL and use all powers available to him to ensure the intended recipients have full responsibility for and full access to the site?

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and for recognising the important role that the sports capital grant plays in helping sports clubs across the country to develop facilities and back the work done by so many volunteers across sporting clubs. As the Deputy outlined from his experience in his role with Prosperous United, massive work makes sport an important part of people's lives. That is something that we, as a Government, want to continue to support and develop in the time ahead. A key mechanism for doing that, as the Deputy said, is the CSFF, which is the primary means of providing Government support to sport and community organisations at local, regional and national level across the country. The programme aims to foster an integrated and planned approach to the development of sports and physical recreation facilities and assists the purchase of non-personal sports equipment.

Over €250 million was allocated to 3,048 community sports clubs and facilities in 2024 from the 2023 round of the CSFF, representing the largest ever investment in sports facilities in communities across Ireland. There are a comprehensive set of controls in place to ensure that grants are used in accordance with the objectives and rules of the fund, which I know is a key point raised by the Deputy in his Topical Issue. When making applications under each round of the CSFF, all organisations must agree to the terms and conditions of the programme and include a statement that all information provided as part of an application is truthful. All grants under the CSFF are initially allocated on a provisional basis and grantees must provide the documentation set out in the letter of provisional allocation prior to receiving formal approval.

In all cases, the letter of provisional allocation informs grantees that submission of false or misleading information to the Department at any stage is treated very seriously. Any organisation that does not comply with the terms and conditions of the sports capital programme may be subject to inspection, have their grant withdrawn, be required to repay all or part of a grant or be barred from making applications for a period of time. All serious breaches of the terms and conditions of the programme will be notified to An Garda Síochána. Grantees must guarantee that the facilities funded will remain in sporting use for a minimum period of time.

This is five years for equipment or capital grants of €25,000 or less and 15 years for any larger capital grants. Once grantees have formal approval, they may commence work and draw down the grant. The drawdown of grants involves the submission of documentation which is checked within the sports capital programmes division and must include invoices that detail the work carried out, proof of payment of these invoices by way of bank statements and a signed certificate of compliance with the terms and conditions of the programme.

The Department has a detailed non-compliance policy which is used to examine any suspected instances of non-compliance with the terms and conditions of the fund. On the rare occasion that a serious instance of non-compliance occurs, the grantee is required to repay the Department any grant money paid that was not used for an approved sporting purpose.

As per the relevant departmental guidelines, a system to carry out annual spot checks of capital projects is in place. This is designed to help the Department ensure compliance with all relevant guidelines, including national and EU public procurement procedures and tax clearance requirements as laid down by the Revenue Commissioners. The inspections include a desk-based assessment of projects and site visits to ensure that the projects have been completed and are being used as per the terms and conditions of the CSFF programme.

Each year officials from the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General examine a sample of CSFF payments. This audit includes a checking of the record keeping and management of the documents supporting payments and an examination of the procedures and policies of the sports capital programme unit. Regular audits are also carried out by the internal audit division of the Department into all aspects of the operation of the programme.

The Deputy raised a particular sports capital allocation, which was not part of the initial topic, in his contribution. I will respond to him directly on that topic following his raising it on the floor of the Dáil today.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate that. It ultimately boils down to governance. When we are talking about such significant sums of money given to wonderful groups that are based in our communities and doing important work, these issues will be rare. At the same time, we may see evidence of or signposts towards grave concerns in terms of the end product. The Minister of State mentioned spot checks. I will not pin him to it now but I would appreciate if he and his Department would consider examining the process in terms of the outcome. It seems the fund was spent. Certainly, we have a state-of-the-art facility now but the problem is that who is getting to use it does not seem to match up with what was applied for. We have thousands of kids who should be able to avail of the facility but right now it is only a League of Ireland academy, essentially, that is getting to use the facility. We need to see that improve. I would appreciate if the Minister of State would give his time and attention to that.

I commend the Government on its commitment to sports. We see the outcomes for kids' and young people's physical and mental health. It makes such a difference and there is proper bang for buck from sports investment. I commend the Minister of State, wish him the best in his brief and thank him for the opportunity to raise this. I look forward to meeting with him again. I hope, once the report is published, he will meet with the interim executive in KDUL to get to the heart of the issue.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The KDUL grant has been brought to the Department's attention. The grant was fully drawn down and the Department is not aware of any evidence to suggest it has been used for any purpose other than that intended, nor is there any evidence of non-compliance with the terms and conditions of the programme in respect of the grant or on the part of the grantee. I will respond to the Deputy directly with more detail on the issue.

I think we are all agreed on the massive importance of this sports capital funding. The funding last year was on an unprecedented scale, reaching over 3,000 clubs. In the management of that, the Department is committed to having appropriate checks and balances in place to make sure any grants awarded are spent as intended. I outlined in my initial reply the checks and balances in place with regard to that.

The Department has also recently set up a capital inspection unit. As part of its work, the unit will develop a formal capital inspection process that covers departmental capital grants and departmental capital expenditure. The unit is working to design and implement a risk-based capital inspection programme to cover an appropriate percentage and volume of capital grants and expenditure, including both the community sport facilities fund and the large-scale sport infrastructure fund. This inspection programme will be complementary to the post-completion check already carried out by the sports capital programmes unit.

I am satisfied that the robustness of controls in place is adequate, and that those controls comply with the relevant Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform circulars and represent an appropriate balance between the need to have accountability in how public money is disbursed and the need to advance as many worthwhile sports projects as possible.