Sports Funding Dail Éireann — 2026-05-07 ============================================================ Charlie McConalogue (FF), Donegal I thank Deputies McGrath, Cleere and Ó Murchú. With regard to Deputy McGrath's question on the large-scale infrastructure fund, we have had two rounds of that fund so far, in 2019 and 2024. The national development plan provides for one round to be conducted and opened during this Government term. We expect it will be a couple of years from now, towards the latter end of the Government, because the current focus is on drawing down funding and making sure the projects funded in the most recent round are followed through on. We will be monitoring that closely. We are not talking about the next year or 18 months, but a time beyond that, perhaps in a couple of years. We will monitor it as it goes. We will monitor that closely. We are not talking about the next year or 18 months. We are talking a couple of years beyond that. We will monitor it as it goes. There will be one round of the LSSIF over the Government's terms. We are considering the caps as part of the review. The Minister and I will engage with the Department of public expenditure and across government as well to make sure that the funding envelope can be as strong as possible. That will inform where we are at with the caps as well in terms of the level of funding that can be made available and our general guidance on that. Going around the country, I met Deputies McGrath and Cleere in their own areas. I know they have many projects they want to see going forward. There is real demand. It is exceptionally rare that I visit a club or an organisation that is not under pressure for capacity and space. That is a reflection of the really strong work that the volunteer input that drives our clubs and makes support possible in communities is achieving. From a Government point of view, we have to work to try to support clubs with their key priorities in how they are developing their club best to meet the needs of their members and the participation demands that are on them as well. We look forward to working closely with the Deputies to finalise the detail of this review, and then to having a round open over the next number of months and to make sure that it is as practical and as accessible as possible for clubs to be able to participate in it. We will all work collectively as a Government then to try to support the great work happening in our communities, driven by clubs and underpinned entirely by a voluntary commitment and effort. It makes such a difference and is such a gift from those people to their local communities in terms of the time they give up throughout their week for a wonderful dividend with sport being part of more and more people's lives on a regular basis. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-07/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-07