Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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97. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he and his Department officials will visit a new clubhouse development (details supplied) to speak with the board. [22889/25]

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I rise today to raise an issue on which the Minister of State has already engaged with me regarding Raheny Shamrocks Athletics Club and a development that the board of the club has been working really hard on. I welcome the fact the Minister of State has been speaking to the board. I ask him to comment on the fact that the northside needs more investment in this club and in running tracks across the board.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Heneghan for raising this matter and I know that Raheny Shamrocks is a club to which the Deputy is very committed. His question today relates to the potential for a visit from me to the clubhouse, which is something that both Deputies Heneghan and Brabazon have raised with me. I received an invitation from Deputy Brabazon previously and I responded to the effect that I will be visiting the club on 20 May. I look forward to seeing both Deputies then and to meeting club members.

The club has a wonderful history and a great tradition. Raheny Shamrocks is an iconic athletics club, not just in Dublin but across the country. It is one of the oldest athletics clubs in the country, with former members, including Olympians Dick Hooper, Pat Hooper, Paddy McGrath, Mick Clohisey and most recently, Sophie Becker. The club is also very well known nationally for hosting the Raheny five mile road race which raises very significant funds for the local hospice and is one of the most anticipated five mile runs in the racing calendar.

As the Deputy knows, the Department runs two capital funding programmes for sport, namely, the community sports facilities fund, CSFF, formerly the sports capital and equipment fund, and the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF. Over a quarter of a billion euro was allocated to over 3,000 community sports clubs and facilities in 2024 from the 2023 round of the CSFF. That represented the largest ever investment in sports facilities in communities across Ireland. Raheny Shamrock Athletic Club previously received funding under CSFF in 2018 and again in 2020. In 2024, the second round of the LSSIF was launched and received an unprecedented demand for funding of €665 million. Out of the 96 clubs that applied, 35 were successful, with €173 million allocated. Raheny Shamrocks submitted an application to that fund which was not successful. Should additional funding become available, we are assessing how that can be dealt with in terms of a reserve list.

I very much look forward to meeting Raheny Shamrock Athletic Club during my visit, seeing the proposals and meeting Deputies Heneghan and Brabazon and committee members on 20 May.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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It is great to hear that the Minister of State will be coming to the club. Raheny Shamrock Athletic Club has a significant history of producing Olympians not just for the northside but for all of Ireland, such as Dick Hooper, Mick Clohisey and Sophie Becker as well as paralympians Orla Comerford and David McNally, and Brian Fay, who I went to school with. With over 850 members, the club still has a waiting list for juveniles. There are way more running tracks on the southside. I believe the estimate is six or seven public tracks compared with two public tracks on the northside of Dublin. I do not know if this is because previous northside politicians did not raise it enough with the Department. Will the Minister of State commit to possibly looking into Dublin City Council adding a 400 m running track to St. Anne's Park to be used by future Olympians? More than 90,000 people live with 4 km of St. Anne's Park. Is there any chance that the Department would investigate that?

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I know the club has done wonderful work there historically but also in terms of seeking to develop the club in recent years. It was supported in 2018 and 2020 through sports capital grants. I know it purchased a new building in Raheny and is considering how it can develop it having purchased the old Catholic church in Raheny village. I look forward to seeing how we can work with it in the time ahead. We will open sports capital grants next year. The large scale sports infrastructure grants first opened in 2019, with the second round in 2024. We will look at how that evolves over the next period. Of the €297 million allocated in the past year for sports generally, €79 million was allocated to athletics initiatives on a national scale. Under the large scale sports infrastructure fund, six projects were backed by Athletics Ireland and were awarded €25 million.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I welcome the fact that the Minister of State said that. Regarding the lack of running tracks and the number of Olympians, maybe northsiders are just better runners. I ask that the capital plan that, please God, will go to Raheny Shamrock Athletic Club not be a one-time investment. If Dublin City Council could do this, it could charge people, which would build revenue for the council. We would also prevent further use of hospital services because people would be fitter. Like the significant fines we are facing from the EU, a stitch in time saves nine. We need to invest in youth and our clubs. I welcome the fact that the Minister of State has engaged with me and I thank him from the bottom of my heart on behalf on all the parents whose doors I knocked on who are looking for this. St. Anne's Park needs the investment. Children still have to go into bushes to get changed or to use the bathrooms. Significant things need to be done. I thank the Minister for State for his engagement with this so far.

Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Heneghan, who is a former teacher, for raising this matter. This club has really deep roots in Raheny and Clontarf and further afield. It is well known throughout the country for its excellence but at its core, it has very strong community roots and really deserves our support. We look forward to seeing the Minister of State visit it. I hope we can work together to progress the club's case.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Ó Muirí for his representations and support for the club. The challenge at a national level is the number of asks. If we look at the large scale infrastructure fund most recently, we can see that there were 96 applications nationally and, of these, 35 projects were successful. This meant that €173 million in total was allocated out of an ask in terms of the numbers that came in of €665 million. This is always the challenge but we have seen significant progress in backing the wonderful clubs across all our sports nationally. They all want to do more, we want to back them in doing more and we will be considering how we can do that in terms of additional funding. I look forward to seeing Deputies Heneghan, Ó Muirí and Brabazon with the club when I visit in the coming days.