Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming into the House. Reflecting on the debate which has been centred on the lack of capacity, one of the successes in the area of public transport has been the train service. Most weeks I use the Limerick to Dublin train service twice. During the years capacity has increased exponentially in terms of the number of passengers travelling. The difficulties in Dublin with capacity are a manifestation of the over-concentration of the population within the greater Dublin metropolitan area. I have said many times that Shannon Airport is operating at approximately half capacity, whereas Dublin Airport is at breaking point. I imagine that many commuters who use trains use them to access Dublin Airport. We need a strong capital city, but we also have to look at the need for regional balance to take the pressure off Dublin and redirect traffic to areas from where there is access to, say, Shannon Airport.

To follow up on the point made by Senator Buttimer about transportation, it is critical that there be proper transportation models in cities. There is one under preparation for the Limerick-Shannon link. It is the first time this has happened. It will feed into the model for Shannon Airport and is a positive development. It must be done in an integrated way in terms of planning, the provision of housing and so on.

I know that in referring to the M20 project I am slightly off topic in this debate, but what is its current status? It is a hugely important project. If we are to have proper competition in Ireland inc., there must be synergies in providing direct links to Cork, Limerick and Galway as counterpoints to Dublin. Dublin, with its huge population, is in the east and there must be a counterpoint to it in the west. It is not all about public transport. There have to be connections which can be used by cars, bus services and so forth.

My final point is more of a housekeeping matter. While sports capital grants are most welcome, an issue that comes up repeatedly concerns the interaction with the Office of the Chief State Solicitor Office, of which the Minister is probably well aware, where if the total value of grants giiven to a club exceeds a certain amount, a legal charge must be paid to the State. This is causing untold difficulties for individual clubs.I have brought this matter up with the Minister's Department and the Minister for Justice and Equality, who has responsibility for the CSSO, the need to have a designated section within the CSSO to deal specifically with sports capital grants because it is dealing with voluntary associations. It is an administrative problem that could be overcome with a little bit of reorganisation.