Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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30. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views on the municipal stadium model which has been successfully developed in Tallaght by South Dublin County Council; and if he will examine the possibility of helping to finance less affluent local authorities in other parts of the country develop similar schemes. [32789/16]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The Sports Capital Programme (SCP) is the Government's primary vehicle to support the development of sports facilities and the purchase of sports equipment.  The SCP has transformed the sporting landscape of Ireland with improvements in the quality and quantity of sporting facilities in virtually every village, town, county and city in the country.  The facilities that were funded range from the smallest clubs to national centres of sporting excellence.

Tallaght Stadium received almost €8.5m in SCP funding, which represented more than two thirds of the total cost of the development. It is a multi-use stadium which is owned and operated by South Dublin County Council. Aside from football, Tallaght Stadium has also hosted other sports such as rugby, American football and archery and has conference facilities for 300 people and a capacity of 20,000 as a concert venue. I believe that developments like Tallaght Stadium offer a useful template for multi-use municipal facilities and I would be happy to examine similar proposals in the future subject to the overall funding available for sports capital projects.

In this regard, as was confirmed in the 2017 Estimates Statement, a new round of the Sports Capital Programme will be open for applications in the near future with the announcement of allocations expected in 2017.  We expect to announce more details in this regard shortly.