Sports Facilities
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-14
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Colm Burke (FG), Cork North-Central

I am absolutely astonished at that reply. The county council told councillors that it was leasing 12.5 acres to Riverstown FC rather than the full site. What the FAI is telling the Minister is totally different. State agencies, the Minister of State's Department, the county council and the FAI, which gets funding from the Department, are all involved and I cannot get a clear answer. I am getting one answer from the Department, which it is getting from the FAI, and we are getting a different answer from Cork County Council.
This is State land that is lying idle. The population of Glanmire is growing at a phenomenal rate. One thousand new houses are being built. The Minister of State's Department agreed to provide funding to the FAI back in 2017 or 2018. This was never taken up by the FAI. That is not the Department's fault but the FAI was not asked any questions about bringing this land back into use for sporting activities in Glanmire. There are 30 acres lying idle. Not a sod has been turned and no planning application has been made.
We are now getting mixed messages about what is actually going on. I am not happy with this answer. The Minister of State can say that to the FAI. I also ask his Department to get clarification directly from the county council. The Minister of State is involved in developing sports facilities. Most of the population that will use this facility live in the city. There should therefore be a joint approach to developing these lands between the Department, the county council and the city council. We need them. Soccer clubs and GAA clubs are turning people away. Schools are under pressure. Some of the schools down there have over 1,000 students. They have some facilities but not facilities at the scale they would like. I ask that the Department now give priority to this issue. There are 1,000 houses being built. We are collecting planning fees and all sorts of contributions for these developments to go ahead but we are not providing any facilities of any description. Both the Department and the local authorities are guilty of not dealing with this issue.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-14