Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is crucial. The Minister of State mentioned in his response that schools are encouraged to make their facilities available for wider community use but we need something stronger to provide that where boards of management face challenges in that respect, we will engage with them to find out why school facilities are not being made available in certain areas. The Minister of State will note from the CLÁR funding area maps that the CLÁR areas are dependent on district electoral divisions, which are based on the Pobal deprivation index. It is mainly in the west and north west, with certain other pockets around the country, as the Minister will note when he looks at the map. These areas do not have access to a wide variety of public facilities or much choice. If there are areas where this initiative has not been successful and we are funding it through the CLÁR programme, particularly for community facilities, I ask that the Department provide an update on the reasons they are not being used.

In respect of the report that came back from the Department on funding, is it clear that the school facilities are being opened for after-hours access. I apologise to Senator Buttimer as I am not sure if he will have a minute or only a few seconds to contribute further.