Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail)

I understand the other big beneficiary so far is the constituency of Dublin West which, by a remarkable co-incidence, is the constituency of the senior Minister, Deputy Leo Varadkar. They stated the same about the former Minister, Mr. John O'Donoghue, in Kerry South at one time. What goes around, comes around. I suppose there will be a raft of applications from every county. As the Minister of State said, he has a difficult job and it is a matter of the loaves and fishes. He does not have enough for everybody.

I have one query. The closing date is a little abrupt. Online applications must be received by 1 June. The Minister of State is aware that the forms are complex and that many committees employ consultants and specialists to help them. I wonder if he would be prepared to extend that timescale by a month or two into the summer period to allow small struggling organisations the little extra time they need. From telephone calls, there is possibly a lack of communication. Naturally, most sports clubs can hear the grass grow and know when there is funding available. However, there are other organisations which would not be as clued in. I ask the Minister of State, if it is in his power to do so, to be somewhat lenient in this regard.

Everyone has to be parochial and say something in respect of his or her own area and I am no different. The great writer Dr. Bryan McMahon once said, "If it is only a pup goat, you have to be in the middle of the fair with him". I am in the middle of the fair with the Minister of State and I intend to take advantage of that. There are some very good projects in train in Kerry at present. The Minister of State will be aware of a very important flagship project, which is a joint venture involving the GAA, Tralee Institute of Technology and Shannon Development. The aim of this project is to try to develop a centre of sporting excellence in Tralee, the home of Gaelic football. I hope the Minister of State might be in a position to take a close look at what is going on in respect of the project to which I refer.

I am sure the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Deenihan, has brought the Minister of State up to speed on difficulties that have been experienced in respect of the swimming pool and indoor leisure centre in Ballybunion. Unfortunately, and as we enter the summer season, the latter was obliged to close due to a lack of funding. Those who run the centre are seeking funding to put in place a heating and small energy plant in order to try to reduce costs. It is almost impossible to break even in respect of a swimming pool, even in a resort centre such as Ballybunion. I could refer to 20 further projects in my county but these are the two to which I ask the Minister of State to pay particular attention.

The contribution of sport to the economy is well documented. There is a win-win situation in this regard. For every €100 invested by the Government in sport, €149 comes back in sports-related taxes. Some 38,000 people - 2% of the national workforce - are directly employed in sports administration. As the Minister of State indicated, everyone is aware of the importance of sport to people's health and well-being.

Value for money is an issue to which the Minister of State will be giving careful consideration. In the past there were some unfortunate examples of large sums of money being invested in major projects which turned out to be white elephants. We must guard against any recurrences in this regard. One can drive around the country - including through County Kerry - and come across projects which, despite the fact that successive Governments provided grants in respect of them, remain unfinished. Value for money is critical.

The integration of services is extremely important for those who are involved in sport. If one is going to invest money in providing a VEC with playing pitches or whatever, it is vital that local sports clubs be given access to these. If the money is going to the local sports club, then the position should be reversed. At one point, there was an element of mutual exclusivity in respect of playing fields. Local secondary schools used to have fine playing pitches, while the members of local GAA clubs were obliged to tog out and train in boggy fields. There was no communication in this regard but the position is changing. It is up to the Minister of State to ensure that such change continues.

Like many colleagues, I was previously involved in local government. We found that grants came with conditions attached, namely, that the moneys invested had to be underwritten in a doomsday scenario by local authorities. Those who served on Kerry County Council when I was a member knew all about that because we were obliged to underwrite a project relating to the replica Famine ship, the Jeanie Johnston. The council nearly went broke as a result of this project, which was originally estimated to cost €1.5 million but ended up costing €12 million. The county council and its ratepayers were obliged to bail out the project. This was because of a condition attaching to the original grant to the effect that we were obliged to underwrite the project. At the time, I was one of the few individuals involved who was not in favour of the project and who cautioned against it.

Difficulties such as that to which I refer are now arising in other areas. I have already referred to the position in Ballybunion. According to this week's edition of the local newspaper, Kerry County Council is again going to be asked to pick up the tab unless the Minister of State comes to the rescue. I hope he will do so.