John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I envy him the job he has as I am a former physical education, PE, teacher who has been involved in sport all of my life. His portfolio is certainly a desirable one and is obviously on many occasions a good news Department. I firmly believe that there is a sport or activity for everyone and it is just a case of finding that sport. That is why our schools and our sports partnerships are so important for younger people to sample a whole range of sports and, ultimately, participate and specialise in them. We could not survive across all sports across the country without the volunteers who give of their time, day in and day out, 365 days of the year.

In the Minister of State's opening address he touched on the 2020 sports capital allocation to 2,900 projects of €166.6 million. As the Minister of State knows, the drawdown period on those grants vary based on when the club does the works so my question, looking forward to the 2023 sports capital programme, is how much will he be able to carry forward from 2023 into 2024 in order to maximise the pot available for both equipment and capital grants. Perhaps the Minister of State might be able to give an indication. We know that the equipment grants will come first. Is there even an expected month when that will be available? Subsequently, what month will the capital then be available next year because a record number of clubs have applied?

On the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, the Minister of State visited Walsh Park a few months ago and he saw first-hand the fantastic work done. Since his visit, the camogie and hurling county finals took place there. It is a fantastic facility but the allocation of €3.753 million which was given in 2019 was to do phase 1 and phase 2. The county board had to cut its cloth to measure in order to bring in that phase 1. I know that the Minister of State has done a body of work on additional allocations in that respect and I ask that people, clubs and organisations which have gone on and done those works, have cut their cloth to measure to ensure that they came in within budget, are not penalised now in the additional allocation but allowed to avail of an additional pot of funding to enable them to move on to their phase 2, which was what was envisaged in the first place. Does the Minister of State have an indication as to when that money will be available, where he spoke of the "coming" period?