Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit agus tréaslaím go mór leis an méid infheistíochta in áiseanna spóirt atá déanta i rith na bliana. Chomh maith leis sin táim go láidir i bhfabhar na físe don todhchaí. I welcome the Minister of State. We are neighbours. I hope that will be reflected in the allocations to come and he will show a neighbourly touch in very much focusing on all the County Cavan clubs that have applied. I welcome the Minister of State's opening statement on behalf of the Government on where we are at. I make my opening remarks on behalf of Senator Carrigy, who is our spokesperson in this area, but who is at an important meeting with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. Hopefully, that meeting will not take away the money for sports capital grants. The Senator will be along shortly.

It is so encouraging and uplifting to learn from the Minister of State that 13,000 projects have benefited from an investment of €1.15 billion since 1998. That is so transformative for people. As was said, it is very much crucial to the formation of young people across all facets of development. The team spirit, resilience, self-confidence, camaraderie and everything that goes with participation in sport are vital for young people. It is also important for human development right across different ages, with walking tracks around pitches, the various activities that take place there, the club rooms where people come together, and all of that building of communities. It is an extraordinarily important investment. It is such a good investment that, as the Minister of State probably agrees, it is very disappointing when we have to exclude somebody because what it does is just wonderful.

It is important at this juncture to pay tribute to volunteers, who are so crucial to the delivery of this programme. They are such a resource in all our communities. The volunteers in all the football clubs, sporting clubs and sports partnerships are great people and are a treasure. We should applaud and value them. They are the people who generate the projects, give the leadership, create the vision locally and get local participation. They are wonderful and a great credit.

I would like the Minister of State to consider a very personal proposal. Apart from the good-humoured banter, which was laced with a level of seriousness, about positive discrimination in favour of Cavan as a neighbour, I reiterate a very profound point I made on the Order of Business that I feel very strongly about.I ask the Minister of State to give this serious consideration. I do not think it can be done with this grant or in this tranche, but if he could be the Minister to do this, I would be so delighted. Before he decides not to do it, I ask him to reflect on it.

We are all trying to work towards a united Ireland of hearts and minds. I welcome the special unit in the Taoiseach's office, which was initiated by the current Tánaiste, and all that investment. I welcome every effort to build peace in Northern Ireland and across the island and, very importantly, as a prelude to unity, to build interaction North and South.

My proposal is that the Minister of State would award a level of points or a small amount of points to an application that can show evidence that the club is interacting with a club in Northern Ireland. It could be a very superficial interaction, even if it were only to play a challenge game or two once or twice a year, or it could be a bigger interaction. A club that is going for a sports capital grant would show evidence in its application form. Hypothetically, Dunboyne, in the Minister of State's own area, could be interacting with Rostrevor and playing games there. Maybe the team would be going up for a challenge match or Rostrevor would be coming down once or twice a year. There is a limit practically to how much this could be done. If we could do this, however, it would have an enormous impact because what is needed to build a united Ireland is to build friendships and human contact.

I am a product of St. Aidan's Comprehensive School in Cootehill. The great merit of that school was that it was multidenominational. Apart from having male and female participation from all social classes, rural and urban, it was multidenominational and it made for a great mutual understanding. It was a big catalyst in keeping civil strife and trouble from spreading to the southern area during the worst of the Troubles. What am I saying? Building these relationships would be so valuable. I think we are very Dublin-centric and the Minister of State knows this. In places like counties Meath, Cavan, Longford, Leitrim and Louth, we are far too Dublin-centric in the sense that we do not go north enough. We do not go to Belfast enough. We do not interact with the North enough, and yet, in a survey, we would all aspire to and say we are in favour of a united Ireland, and we are, but we have to build it in the way I am suggesting.

I appeal to the Minister of State, with his civil servants, to look at the possibility. It would be interesting if he were the Minister to do this and if this conversation today were to be the catalyst or genesis of it. He might look at getting a core small percentage of the marks in each application awarded for evidence of contact with Northern Ireland. Marks are already awarded for evidence, which he rightly alluded to in his opening statement and he is so right about that, of the participation of women and for gender equality in a club. There should be mass gender participation and diversity and all of that. Indeed, the Minister of State supports diversity in sports, and these are wonderful things. If he added that little criterion for an added number or small percentage of marks that could be achieved by showing evidence of contact with Northern Ireland, every club would make a serious effort to get the maximum marks. I can tell him from the years I have been dealing with these clubs, like all colleagues on all sides of the House who have all been interacting with clubs in the context of the sports capital grants, that the enthusiasm and drive is there. I would receive a number of telephone calls from a club secretary, as all Members would, right up to the day of the award asking when the award is, how their club is looking and whether they will get money. They are wound up about it and it is wonderful that they are. These are wonderful people. Imagine if, as part of this, we also had them so wound up about putting the effort into that little piece about Northern Ireland. The implications could be great. I appeal to the Minister of State to look at that.

I wish to pay a great tribute. Tragically, we had some deaths recently among young people in my county. We have them everywhere, but we had a number of very tragic deaths in a cluster in the past year or so in my county.The whole response of the GAA clubs to the bereaved families is something to behold. It is impressive, and it merits applause, support and recognition. The Minister of State might allude to it in his closing remarks. The people who do this great work are contributing to the avoidance of tragic days like this. I remember telling a GAA official recently that they were never going to know the good they had done, because they will never know the tragedies that would have unfolded and people who would have gone to the wrong side of the fence were it not for their work. There are people who might have got involved in substance abuse, anti-social behaviour, or who across the board might have fallen through the cracks were it not for the work of these sporting clubs. We will never know about those people because they have not fallen through the cracks. That is why we should applaud and support them. I know the Minister of State is enthusiastic and his opening statement is encouraging.

I would like to have a celebration of these volunteers. I would like the Minister of State to examine my proposal on Northern Ireland, and I would appreciate him coming back to me at some point with his thoughts. I hope we go on supporting the clubs the way we are, and I wish him well with the allocations to come. I am only partly jesting about discrimination to the region.