I will try to get through as many of the issues as possible. I will talk about the issue of women and sport, which has been raised by a number of Senators. The day is over when, as Senator Dooley said, women have to thank the GAA for letting them in or have to pay. I brought in a new rule on sports capital this year and this will apply in counties Kildare, Louth, Clare and all over the country where it is an issue. Again, I will not refer to specific issues. If clubs get a grant in this round of the sports capital,…

That is what we said. To be honest, I hear these stories and then when I ask on the ground, people say, "It is grand here", and I know it is not. I am hearing that in the Seanad today. I have to say, though, I was talking to some representatives of the Camogie Association who told me that camogie clubs have been more involved this year with the sports capital programme than ever before in terms of signing licence agreements and all of that. They attributed that to this rule I brought in for sports capital, so I hop…

That is what I am saying. I hope we will be in the position to do that in the coming weeks. We may not be ready to open applications in the coming weeks, but I at least hope to be able to signal that. There is ongoing engagement with the Department of public expenditure on that at the moment. We have to do that. We had to do it for sports capital and we now have to do it for the large-scale sports infrastructure fund. I hope to be able to give that signal around the time we announce the top-up grants, which were on…

A fantastic job has been done and I do not think anybody would ever be penalised for doing a fantastic job. Newbridge is the same. There are two projects that are under way: Dunboyne, which is my own area, and the running track in Newcastle West. They are among the very few that are being done. We want more of that.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir Cassells agus leis na Seanadóiri uile as ucht an deis seo labhairt leo faoi infheistíocht an Stáit sa sacar. At the outset, I assure Senators that the Government recognises the importance of investment in football as one of the key participation sports in Ireland. There has been a sustained commitment in that regard by Government, particularly so in recent years when, as Senators will recall, a significant financial support package was put in place which ensured that the FAI remai…

It is clear that we want to support football. We made a special effort to reach out to football clubs and get them to apply for sports capital grants. I did that and I know the Senator did so locally as well. I wanted to do this because I want to see clubs benefit from the fund. We will do the same when we open the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF, which is very important. I have made clear that if the 40% target is not met, there will be serious consequences. That is something on which the FAI and a nu…

I am very pleased to join the debate on behalf of the Tánaiste, who is at another event during this part of the debate. I thank Deputies for their valuable contributions. I acknowledge that many people have been very consistent on this issue over many years, as Fianna Fáil has and this Government has. I welcome the recognition of former Fianna Fáil Deputy, Minister and international statesman Frank Aiken in the motion. That is welcome. However, there has also been some crazy stuff said in this debate today. Deputy …

I am not saying Deputy Gannon was crazy in this context but he mentioned that Kosovans in this country do not want conflict. I am absolutely certain they do not; he is right on that. However, our peacekeepers in Kosovo have been cited by Sinn Féin in its policy document on neutrality as a threat to our neutrality and as an erosion of it. Peacekeeping in Kosovo is included in a list of things that have eroded our neutrality. There have been a lot of things said in this debate that do not add up. There has been a lot…

We are.

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I am in the county next door to him but in a different province, so we do not get to be in Clones often, if ever. We are here to discuss sports investment, and that will continue. I had the opportunity to discuss it in the Dáil last Thursday. I invite the Leader and Senators, if they so wish, to have a full debate on sports capital funding, as we did in the Dáil. I would be happy to do so here. Regarding the Department’s responsibility, the sports capital and equipment p…

The Ulster GAA council will make its own decisions about stadiums but to be clear, Clones is not in competition with Casement Park from a Government point of view. The primary responsibility for the funding of Casement Park is really with the GAA but also the British Government, which has given an unconditional commitment to ensure the funding is there for Casement Park. The Taoiseach has said that we may be in a position to support that and the details of that can be worked out but this is not in competition with …

The national sports policy, which was published in 2018, provided for the establishment of a large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF. The first call for proposals under the LSSIF closed in 2019 with applications confined to local authorities and national governing bodies of sport. All applications were assessed in accordance with the published evaluation procedures and guidelines and the first allocations were announced in January 2020. Thus far, approximately €86.4 million has been awarded to 33 different pro…

I know my own local League of Ireland team will be playing in Sligo the weekend after next. Who knows, maybe we will catch up there. I do not know just yet but I certainly have interest in that. We want to see another large-scale sports infrastructure fund go forward but we also want to see projects built. One of the flaws with the previous programme was that many of these projects were not built. Galway has a number of projects, one of which I do not know the status of, namely, the Galway regional aquatic and fitn…

I did not mention the Connacht Rugby project, which is one of the most significant ones. The thinking in the Department about any new round should be borne in mind by anyone considering it because there is considerable work to do. Any facilities that we will be funding in the future, including the top-ups, will need to have published policies on similar access to facilities for men and women. That is an innovation I introduced. It is absolutely necessary and when we award grants, clubs will be required to set that …

I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 63 together. The Minister and I were very pleased to be able to announce an increase of €2 million in funding for the Women in Sport programme for 2024. This is a very important funding scheme for sporting bodies and it will continue to support those bodies in putting programmes in place to increase women’s participation in their sports and to progress their strategic objectives for women in sport across all areas, including active participation, coaching, officiating and lead…

I will give as an example the Her Moves campaign, which is part the programme. This is designed to support, motivate and encourage more teenage girls to be active. Her Moves is being used by organisations at all levels, national and local, when rolling out physical activity programmes that target teenage girls using certain criteria. So far this year, 35 organisations have engaged with the Her Moves campaign. We had a brilliant launch for it at the Sports Ireland Campus. The website has had 57,000 hits and we will …

Regarding the points raised by Deputies Aindrias Moynihan and Costello, the Her Moves programme is specifically designed to keep teenage girls in sport. That is only one of the programmes. It is based on research, the Adolescent Girls Get Active report, done only two years ago. It was important research done by Sport Ireland that informs us about what the Deputies spoke about. We have facts in this regard. The gender gap between men and women in sport was 15.7% in 2005. That was the percentage difference between me…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 and 26 together. I thank Deputy Smith for asking these questions and Deputies Pádraig O'Sullivan and McAuliffe for submitting them. The large-scale sports infrastructure fund, which I have outlined already, was a significant fund that awarded approximately €86.4 million to 33 different projects. Details, including the project cap, are on the Department's website. I also outlined the difficulties with some of those projects due to the pandemic and, subsequently, construction infla…

I thank the Deputy. I am hopeful the Cavan project will be able to start and be completed. There have been active discussions between the Department and the promoters of the Cavan regional sports campus that Deputy Brendan Smith has been in touch with me a lot about. He is very committed to that project. We are very committed to that project as well. We did offer further funding during the summer to everybody. Almost all of the large scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF, recipients applied for further funding and…

Of course I will continue to work with Deputy Brendan Smith on the project in Cavan. I hope to be announcing extra funding for successful applicants for LSSIF in due course. I agree with Deputy Alan Farrell on the Euros. Deputy Ó Murchú talked about Drogheda United. I am very grateful that the board briefed me on developments there. I am very conscious that it is a matter for the members of the club to make decisions there. I will not comment one way or the other but will let them make the decision. Investment from…