Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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1922. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the funding avenues that are available through her Department which could assist a sporting organisation with the purchase of land, particularly where a club does not currently have a ground of its own and there is a proven need within an area. [1910/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department's mission is to support vibrant and sustainable communities across the country, and in doing so to deliver on a wide range of strategic interventions and policies to support rural and urban. In delivering on this mission, I am happy to say that my Department has in recent years put in place extensive supports for communities including sports clubs, youth groups and voluntary and community groups. In particular, My Department implements a wide ranging programme of capital supports schemes which support communities across the country, such as the Town and Village Renewal Scheme, the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme, CLÁR and LEADER.

However, while a wide range of community organisations have benefited from these funding schemes in recent years, direct funding for the purchase of land for sports clubs is not within the remit of my Department. In the main, funding of sporting clubs is a matter for my colleague the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media through initiatives such as the Sports Capital Programme.