Seanad debates

Wednesday, 21 November 2018

10:30 am

Photo of Lorraine Clifford LeeLorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I raise the very serious issue of sports capital grants, as discussed in the media this morning. There are shocking reports that senior Ministers and figures in the Fine Gael Government lobbied extensively for the allocation of sports capital funds to private golf clubs in their constituencies. The sports capital programme is primarily designed to fund local sports groups and clubs with a particular emphasis on areas of deprivation. The message from the Government on the sports capital programme states that it is the primary means of providing funding to sports and community organisations and that grants are designed to prioritise the needs of disadvantaged areas and groups in the provision of sports facilities. However, it emerged a number of months ago that large amounts of last year's funding went to private golf clubs and fee-paying schools in various constituencies. It is very serious that senior figures in Fine Gael, including the Tánaiste, Deputy Coveney, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Heather Humphreys, the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, the Minister of State at the Department of Defence, Deputy Keogh, the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Jim Daly, Deputy Marcella Corcoran-Kennedy and, in particular, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, lobbied the Department on behalf of private golf clubs in their areas.

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