Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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44. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when details of the next community sports facilities fund will be announced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [64199/25]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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As the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach knows, the sports capital programme has been extremely beneficial across our two counties of Cavan and Monaghan. Voluntary groups and sporting organisations have worked hard to provide new and upgraded facilities. No matter what parish I go to, it is great to see the top-quality facilities available. Unfortunately, the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and I do not have county councils with large cash reserves. We do not have a strong rates base but our two councils, to their credit, are developing local facilities in conjunction with local sporting and voluntary organisations. I hope the Minister of State will be able to announce a new sports capital programme early in 2026.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. He has been a strong advocate, as has the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, for sports capital development and for backing clubs in his constituency. We are preparing to reopen to new applications for the community sports facility fund by the end of spring with the objective of making funding announcements by the end of next year.

The recent pattern has generally been a round every two years. The 2024 round saw record funding of about €270 million in total. Over 3,000 clubs across the country benefited from it. The round before that was about €160 million, so there has been a significant step change. The round two years before that was in double digits, around €80 million. That is a reflection of where the Government has gone to back the ambition of clubs and organisations across the country to develop sporting facilities. We are really ramping it up and we are seeing the benefit of it everywhere in terms of improved facilities. They are needed. We are seeing improved participation in sport across all age groups and massive efforts are being put in by the clubs and volunteers in terms of facilitating people and giving opportunities. Of course, that puts pressure on facilities. There is barely a club you could visit that is not under pressure for space and capacity. It is important we continue to support that effort and that is what we will do next year. We are completing a review of the outgoing sports capital - our community sports facility fund round - in relation to how it worked to make sure when we open it up next time around it is as practical as possible for clubs to apply and benefit from it. The objective is to have that ready to be opened by the end of spring.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State's announcement on the next round. It is a joy to visit any of our sporting clubs on a Saturday morning and see the huge numbers of people participating. Clubs who have relatively good facilities and even county boards with good facilities are always talking to us about the pressure on their grounds and their need for additional facilities.

It is welcome to see more and more participation in sport by young girls. I attended three county camogie finals in Cavan a few weeks ago and saw the crowd and the numbers. Each team was able to line out more than 30 on the panel. In my county and in Monaghan, a huge effort is made to encourage participation.

The sports grounds and county grounds are made available as well to camogie and ladies' football, which was not always the way in the past. Working together, the men's games and the ladies' games, football and camogie, helps big time to increase participation, which is good for everybody.

The last two rounds have been particularly beneficial. A lot of good work has been done but costs are continuing to rise. When assessments are being done, I ask the Minister to ensure that costs are taken into account.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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This is something Deputy Smith is committed to and he has been speaking to me about it separately. I look forward to visiting the Deputy and Deputy Maxwell in the constituency in advance of the next round opening up, and making sure that we provide every opportunity for clubs to apply and to be funded.

It is wonderful to see the impact and the value for money that any investment by the Government results in. When it comes into a club, you see everyone come together. You see people giving voluntarily of their time, not only in terms of the work that goes on day in, day out, every week day and weekend, providing coaching but also when it comes to developing that club, with people coming together to work, often voluntarily as well, to make sure that whatever funding is there from the Government and through fundraising goes as far as it possibly can. We will be back at that next year with the reopening of the sports facility fund.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State's commitment in this regard.

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As agreed, we will go back to Question No. 14 for Deputy Ó Murchú.