Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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52. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide a progress report on developments at the national sports campus; if he will detail the planned expansion of facilities there; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46971/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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A significant amount of work is taking place at the National Sports Campus which will see a number of facilities completed this year and more to come on stream in the short to medium term. Irish Sport HQ has been completed and now is the administrative headquarters of almost 20 NGBs. Work is almost complete on the development of multi-sport all-weather floodlit pitches.  It is anticipated that these pitches will be open to the public in December.  Work is underway on a pavilion and car park for the facility. I officially opened the National Horse Sport Arena on 9 October and work on a new National Diving Training Centre was completed in September. A National Modern Pentathlon Training Centre, accommodating the fencing and shooting aspects of Modern Pentathlon has been completed which, together with the existing facilities at the National Aquatic Centre and the National Horse Sport Arena, means that the National Sports Campus is one of the few facilities in Europe where training for all Pentathlon disciplines can be accommodated on one site.

Agreements are in place among the National Sports Campus Development Authority and the FAI, GAA, IRFU and IHA to develop field-sport facilities for each of their respective sports. Preparatory works have commenced on the GAA and FAI elements. A new access road has been completed which will open up the site for the development of these facilities. Remaining elements of the National Sports Campus, including community pitches, high performance training and rehabilitation facilities and athlete accommodation, will continue to be developed incrementally in line with available exchequer funding. One of the elements of the National Sports Campus that remains to be developed is a National Indoor Training Arena. The announcement in the Budget that funding will be made available from the proceeds of the sale of the National Lottery licence to allow this development to commence is very welcome news for Irish sport.This is one of the final pieces of major sporting infrastructure in Ireland and worl will commence on this next year.