Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. His energetic and committed speech raised one's heart. I echo his sentiments on Katie Taylor who has done us proud. We wish all of our Olympians well in the months ahead. In particular, I wish the Irish soccer team every success. There was the first part of an excellent documentary about the boys in green broadcast on RTE last night. We have come a long way since the hungry days when they hardly had laces in their boots, had no budget and no support.

I wish the Minister of State well in the reintroduction of sports grants. As he will be aware, it was a Fianna Fáil initiative which was successful for many years. Unfortunately, owing to the economic downturn, it was not feasible to continue with it. However, the Minister of State has reintroduced the scheme which, I hope, will be as successful for him as it was under Fianna Fáil Governments. Certainly, in our time we transformed sports facilities throughout the country. We gave a lift to small rural communities which were struggling. Whether the grants were small, medium or big, they provided a much needed injection of capital, support and encouragement. They were of huge benefit to the various codes, many of which were struggling to keep pitches open, make refurbishments, build small stands, etc. One can see the good work done all over the country.

The Minister of State is making €30 million available for successful applicants at local, regional and national level. I strongly welcome his commitment to weight it in favour of disadvantaged communities. It is particularly welcome that RAPID programme areas only have to come up with 5% of the cost. The figure for CLÁR areas is 10% as opposed to 15% for all other areas. That is both fair and equitable and to be welcomed. I also strongly welcome the decision to waive the land ownership condition which stymied many worthwhile projects in the past.

I have a number of questions to put the Minister of State. There was a robust defence against his friends in The Irish Times and Irish Independent, for whom I hold no brief. There have always been suggestions of political bias and interference in the payment of grants and it comes as no great surprise that people are looking closely at the inordinate funding that seems to be making its way into County Mayo which I believe is receiving more than the entire Dublin region.