I thank the Senator Stephenson for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade who is unavailable. At the outset, I want to underline Ireland's long-standing and continued support for the ECHR and the role of the European Court of Human Rights as essential elements of the architecture of the rule of law in Europe. As a founding member of the Council of Europe, Ireland fully supports the Council’s essential role in promoting human rights, democracy, and the rule of …

I will ask the Department to respond directly to Senator Stephenson on any plans it has to engage with IHREC in advance of the meeting and also on her query in regard to previous consultations. As the Government has made very clear, Ireland's support for the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights is very strong. We see both as vital components of the European rule of law architecture. We are very conscious of the role the Council of Europe plays in promoting human rights. Human r…

I thank Senator Fitzpatrick for raising this important matter and indeed for her leadership and advocacy on the redevelopment of the GPO in a way that will make sure it will play as strong a role in the next 100 to 200 years of this State as it has in our State's history up to this point. The Government established the task force in May 2024 to take a holistic view of the measures required to rejuvenate Dublin city centre, including O'Connell Street. The Dublin city task force took an evidence-informed approach in …

I again thank the Senator for raising the matter. I hope I have reassured her that from a Government point of view, the GP will remain as a public-facing post office. The process under way is to enhance it to ensure we bring in more people and it becomes more central in the life of O'Connell Street and Dublin city centre than it has been in recent years. That work will be led by the Office of Public Works, OPW. The long-term ownership of it will come to the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, and we ar…

I thank the Senator for raising this issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, who apologises for not being able to be here in person. By way of background, Ireland’s 16 ETBs provide free ESOL classes for those who need support in developing English language proficiency. Courses range from beginner to intermediate levels, as well as advanced or professional ESOL. In some ETBs, ESOL courses are also linked to career areas such as healthcare…

I again thank the Senator for raising the matter and providing the opportunity for me, on behalf of the Minister for further education, to outline the situation and background. I assure the Senator that proactive steps are being taken by officials to maximise the impact of ESOL provision within available resources. Since February 2022, demand for ESOL programmes provided by ETBs has risen very sharply. That ESOL provision was critical in supporting migrants in the development of English language skills, while also …

I thank the Deputy. As she knows, my Department operates two sports capital funding programmes, namely, the community sports facilities fund, CSFF, and the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF. Both programmes are administered via an online customer portal, the online sports capital register, or OSCAR as it will be known to anyone who has made an application and been responsible in their club for engaging with the community sports facilities fund or the LSSIF over the past few years. It is also based on an …

I agree. It is certainly tracking to be in place to be able to run the new sports capital funding round on that system as well. That is certainly the position we want to be in. I have met very regularly with the team and we have been leading out on this to make sure the progress has been tracked and that there has been a prioritisation put on it within the Department. The work is progressing well. The team assures me we are on track to open for applications in late May and into June. We want to be in a position to …

There is a project management team in place and the different steps involved in the process include the transfer of data from the previous OSCAR system onto the new system. The testing of it will be part of the process too. A lot of work has gone into the initial part in terms of the building of it to be able to take on applications. I have been liaising with the team very closely on it. There is a lot of confidence in the team that we are on track to be able to run the new round on the new system.

Over a quarter of a billion euro was allocated to 3,048 community sports clubs and facilities in 2024 from the 2023 round of the community sport facilities fund, CSFF, representing the largest-ever investment in sports facilities in communities across the country. The Deputy’s question referred to the Oscar Traynor centre, where €509,182 was allocated to the centre under the CSFF in the period in question. In the 2020 CSFF round, we allocated €23,563 for sporting equipment, including non-personal portable goalposts…

The understanding is the Oscar Traynor coach and development centre, owned by Bohemians FC, acquired a long-term lease hold on the facility from Dublin City Council. The use of public lands are ultimately a matter for the relevant local authority and not my Department. Access to the facility is now a matter for the FAI and as all NGBs are independent and autonomous bodies and, as such, are responsible for their own governance and operational matters, including the management and operation of its facilities, it is a…

As I said, my understanding is that a long-term leasehold on the facility was acquired from Dublin City Council. In the first instance, this is a matter between Dublin City Council and the organisation concerned. In relation to approving and granting funds, we check to make sure that applications meet the criteria and that the access conditions are fulfilled. We will continue to do that in relation to all applications. On the transaction and lease in question, that is a matter for the organisation and Dublin City C…

The Government is very much focused on promoting lifelong participation in physical activity and sport for all sectors of society and communities. Our sport for all approach aims to ensure that all persons have the opportunity to participate equally in sport and physical activity, regardless of age, socio-economic status, disability or membership of the LGBTI+ community, the Traveller community or other ethnic minorities, and also regardless of gender. My Department operates two capital funding programmes for sport…

We want to be as flexible as we possibly can in supporting all clubs to develop facilities. One source of pressure on clubs is the wonderful increase in female participation in sport in general. That creates additional need for facilities. That is something we want to support through the community sports facilities fund and something we will look at closely. It is important when we give funding that there is assurance around the ownership of the land and the right to use the land for the purpose for which we are co…

In relation to making land available, we want to encourage municipal and multipurpose facilities, particularly through working with local authorities. I encourage the Deputy at local level working with the local authorities-----

-----to see what the opportunities are there. The focus of the Department of sport's funding will be on developing facilities and investing in facilities. We do not have a plan to open that funding up to purchasing land. Were we to do that, many clubs across the country would seek to purchase land under it. Our objective is to put the facilities in place. The primary objective is for the club, partnering with local authorities and others within the community - schools, for example - who may have land, to work to de…

I thank Deputy O'Rourke. I propose to take Questions Nos. 141, 150, 157, 160, 163, 166, 167, 171, 188 and 198 together. The programme for Government commits to continuing the community sports facilities fund and to directing its funding to disadvantaged areas and groups that are currently under-represented in terms of participation. My Department’s statement of strategy for 2025 to 2028 commits to continuing to invest in sports infrastructure at local, regional and national levels through the community sports facil…

The plan is to open it in late May or June, with the objective of having funding announcements committed to and the process completed by the end of the year. As I travel around the country, it is very clear that clubs and volunteers are doing phenomenal work and that participation is growing all the time. That is putting pressure on facilities in clubs across all sports. We just discussed the great growth in female participation. The latter is adding significantly to the pressure on facilities. That is why it is re…

On what Deputy O'Rourke said, we know that there are particular challenges with access to swimming pool facilities across the country. That is why the Government provided €100,000 to Swim Ireland to compile the needs analysis report. I have met representatives from the organisation to discuss how we can step that out now. We now know where the challenges are, and we need to decide how we can best respond to them. Clubs and organisations will be able to apply to the community sports facilities fund for funding for p…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 140 and 180 together. I thank the Deputy. The LSSIF was established, as the Deputy knows, to provide Exchequer support for larger sports facility projects and the cumulative investment since 2020 is €297 million across 68 projects. While the LSSIF is closed to applications at present, our focus is on ensuring that project delivery under the first two rounds of the LSSIF is followed through on. This process will inform any decisions regarding the timing of a future round, but I am co…