Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Senator O'Hara. On Tuesday night, a very momentous occasion took place with the hosting of the women's international match between Ireland and England in the Aviva Stadium, which attracted a record crowd of 33,000 people. At a pre-match reception, FAI president Paul Cooke asked the people in the room to lobby their politicians and make sure to tell them they wanted increased funding for the progression of women's football and women's sport in this country. Yesterday former President Mary McAleese attended the Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media. She has chaired the steering group leading the integration of the GAA, the LGFA and the Camogie Association and she was joined by the presidents of those associations yesterday. Regarding the merger of these three associations, all called for increased funding for women's football and camogie. The president of the GAA, Jarlath Burns mentioned a women's compromise rules match between Ireland and Australia that was played in Parnell Park. He said that the dressing room the Australian team used had two toilets - two toilets for a panel of 30 women. He asked why was this the case and replied that it was because the dressing rooms are built for men. There is no doubt that the funding required for the improvement of facilities across the country will be significant. Since 2022, the sports capital grant delivered a record €150 million in grant aid, which is a fourfold increase in sports funding in this country. I have been advocating for a long time that we need a tenfold increase in sports funding. The new president of the GAA was asked whether there was one thing he would like to see happen in respect of funding and he replied that he would like to see the immigrant investor programme that has been stopped by Government brought back into play. It delivered significant amounts of real funding for sports clubs across the country and could fill the hole. The Government stopped it because of what it described as the influx of Chinese applicants and the backlog of cases. There are around 700 applicants in the system that are causing a backlog in funding for many sporting associations across this country.I call for a debate very promptly with the Minister to deal with the backlog in funding and the reintroduction of this scheme through the Department of Justice.