Sports Funding Dail Éireann — 2026-05-07 ============================================================ Peter 'Chap' Cleere (FF), Carlow-Kilkenny As the Minister of State knows, I have a number of projects and I am sure we will discuss them at length in due course. I want to pay tribute to his colleagues in Killarney as well. Ken and the lads have been fantastic in any dealings I have had with them on existing schemes to new ones going forward. I welcome the Minister of State's commitment to the LSSIF to open in late 2027 or early 2028 as provided for in the programme for Government. We have some key infrastructure projects in my constituency that I look forward to discussing with the Minister of State as well. Last night in Kilkenny I attended an amazing event for an incredible young man called Peter Lynch. He is the fastest marathon runner in the Republic of Ireland. He ran 2:06:08 to finish ninth in the London marathon and was the first European past the post. Peter is a product of Kilkenny City Harriers. In March, he ran the first sub one hour half marathon in New York, which was an incredible achievement. The community of Kilkenny City Harriers and Kilkenny County Council came out last night to support and congratulate this young man on his incredible achievements. It is important in this House that we acknowledge that Peter was an ordinary young lad growing up, worked his way through and showed incredible and resourcefulness. To come away and be a pure champion is absolutely fantastic. I pay tribute to Peter Lynch and Kilkenny City Harriers for their fantastic work. --- 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