Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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100. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the amount that was spent by his Department in supporting sports clubs and organisations in Cork in 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22679/25]

Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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105. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will consider more funding so that all local communities can have access to modern, fit-for-purpose sporting facilities. [22771/25]

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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108. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht when his Department will run the next sports capital programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22505/25]

James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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137. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will outline the plans for the next round of sports capital funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22898/25]

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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Will the Minister outline the amount spent by his Department in supporting sports clubs and organisations in Cork in 2024?

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 100, 105, 108 and 137 together.

I thank the Deputies for their questions. The programme for Government commits to supporting the sporting community across the country to ensure more people participate, reap the benefits of sport and fulfil their potential from grassroots right up to high-performance level. We are achieving this and will continue to achieve it through a number of measures, including maintaining sports funding to get more people participating at all levels of sport, particularly targeting cohorts in society where there are lower than average participation levels. This includes people with disabilities and older people.

The community sport facilities fund is the primary vehicle for Government support for the development of sports and recreation facilities. We had a round of that last year with significant investment and more than 3,000 community sports clubs and facilities received record funding under that. Under the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, significant funding of €173 million was announced in November last year, supporting 35 projects.

Cork is the particular focus of Deputy Burke's question. We saw €7.3 million paid to 130 sporting organisations, and allocations of €32.5 million were made to 367 Cork sporting organisations across the large-scale sport infrastructure fund and community sport facilities fund. That is €32 million in total for Cork. Since 2018, that figure is €77 million.

One of the largest projects funded to date under the first large-scale sport infrastructure fund was the Athletics Ireland and Munster Technological University, formerly CIT, community sport project on the Bishopstown campus of the university. The project was awarded large-scale sport infrastructure fund funding of €9.2 million in January 2020 and additional funding in December 2023 of just over €5 million, bringing the total for the project to €14.3 million for all three phases. To date, we have seen €4.1 million of that drawn down. That is significant support for Cork, as well as across the country. We look forward to continuing to support clubs to develop their sporting facilities through future rounds.

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister and fully agree with him there was a huge amount of funding provided last year and over the past ten years. It is a huge initiative for sports organisations. I find that for every euro the sports organisations get in grants, they raise another €5 through voluntary effort. The facilities provided have been superb.

An issue I want to focus on is large-scale housing development and forward planning. We do not appear to be doing enough work in that area. I ask that the Department would look at that. There is an area in my constituency, Glanmire, which has insufficient areas available for young people.

In fact, the local GAA clubs are coming to the point where they will have to make a choice as to whether to admit everyone who wants to come in or put a limit on that because of access issues. Some 30 acres have been lying idle for the last ten years. I know the FAI had it and is leasing it back to the local soccer club, but that is a project that could come under the large-scale projects scheme. There were two very good projects in Cork in 2024, one at Castleview soccer club and the other where Cork County Council has been working with the athletic club in Mallow. There was €3 million in funding between those two projects, which are very significant. However, Cork only got €3 million out of the €173 million total for the entire country.

Glanmire is an area where large-scale funding needs to be put in place to develop the facilities that are required for the very young population in that area. There are very good sports organisations there, working hard to cater for the increased population. Throughout the country, the Department needs to focus on making sure that sports facilities are put in place and that it is not just housing.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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It has been wonderful in recent years to see the strong increase in participation across many sports and how that has been driven forward and facilitated by the wonderful volunteer ethos at local level in terms of organising and facilitating so much sports activity through clubs on an ongoing basis. There is also great work in terms of leveraging sports capital grants and developing those facilities. That is something we want to continue to back, as a Government, and I know it is something the Deputy wants to see continue in Cork. We will be reviewing the criteria for how we do future sports capital funding grant applications to make sure we are leveraging those funds as much as possible. We also want to make sure different clubs are coming together as much as possible at municipal facilities, for example, so we make the maximum use of the facilities that are being built to benefit as many people as possible in the local community. We have seen significant progress in Cork, and the Deputy mentioned Glanmire as somewhere he would like to see further funding go in. We will be looking at all of those and offering future opportunities to see how we can continue the work that is under way and the significant progress that has been made to date.

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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If the Minister of State is in Cork at any stage, he might come to my home parish of Inniscarra, which has 50 acres of sports grounds. The rugby club, the soccer club, the GAA club and the camogie club all have their own individual pitches, all of which were developed over the past 25 to 30 years. They are very well planned facilities and are all together in one area. We need to do that where there are large urban developments, rather than taking a piecemeal approach where this is done literally when many of the younger population have grown up and moved out of the area. It is an issue we need to address.

I thank the Minister of State and the Department for the work they are doing and the way they have delivered, in particular in the last eight to ten years. On Monday of this week, I was at a sports club which is undertaking a €200,000 development. While I was there, the club was doing a walk to raise the remaining money it needs. It has the sports grant but it needs to raise the additional money. It is a huge community effort. The Department is also doing a very good job. It is important to plan for major, large-scale urban development.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I would certainly be delighted to visit because it sounds like one of the prime examples of what is possible and how, by collaborating, we can maximise the impact of this investment. That is something we want to see more of across the country and, anywhere there is an opportunity to do that, to back it. We are also looking at how we can work in as strong a way as possible through integrating and working with schools and school settings so those facilities that might not otherwise be used often during the day, where possible, can be available close to the schools. It is about taking a strategic approach, continuing to back the wonderful work that clubs are doing and making sure the investment they are making, and the State is making to support them, is delivering the best possible return on participation in local communities and giving opportunities for people across all ages and capabilities to participate in sporting activity.