asked the Minister for Education the plans he has to use for sport the funds which will be generated by the national lottery.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - National Lottery Sport Funds.
8.
Dún Laoghaire): The areas in sport which will benefit from the national lottery will be dependent on the allocation the Government will make from the net income from the lottery. My plans for sport will be announced when the allocation from the lottery will be made known.
Will the Minister give consideration to expenditure on the development of an Irish institute for sport, on the lines of the Australian institute, to encourage excellence in sport?
The Deputy is very fond of Australia.
(Dún Laoghaire): With regard to the excellent facilities in the Australian Institute of Sport——
He was out splaying animals yesterday.
(Dún Laoghaire):—I wish the day could arrive very quickly in this country where we would have comparable facilities. However, I would like to see a build up of major facilities on a regional basis throughout the country because we are short of major facilities on a national scale. We should build up our facilities first before we put all our eggs in one basket.
Finally, will the Minister give consideration to the suggestion of the development of an institute for sport in Ireland? Secondly, what is the Minister's forecast of what will be the income from this lottery to sport in 1987?
(Dún Laoghaire): The amount of money which sport will receive from the lottery in 1987 is a matter for the Government to decide when the net income is known. Estimates to date suggest that there will be an income of £10 million in year one from the national lottery which will begin next February. It will be a matter for the Government to decide what percentage of that £10 million will be allocated to sport. I would agree with the Deputy that the idea of an institute for sport is well worth pursuing and I give him ever assurance that I will look at that suggestion.
With regard to the Minister's wish to see regional centres around the country which would host a particular sporting facility in each area, is he aware that Athlone has made a very detailed and sophisticated submission for the provision of the national sports centre. Can he also tell me if this submission is receiving favourable consideration? Can he tell me further when an announcement will be made on the siting of the national sports centre and whether it is going to be one centre or a system of regional centres? Will the announcement be made prior to the upcoming general election?
(Dún Laoghaire): As I understand from the last announcement the Taoiseach made in this regard, the election will be held in September or October 1987.
I did not ask the Minister when it was to be held.
(Dún Laoghaire): I would hope that we would be well on the way to providing those facilities before next September or October.
The Minister sounded more convincing the last time he said it.
(Dún Laoghaire): However, I am well aware of the excellent submission made by the Athlone authorities with regard to sporting facilities for that area. Indeed, there were many submissions of a similar nature from various parts of the country. It would be unwise to make announcements about things we propose to do until we know exactly how much money we have to do certain things and until we are aware of the amount of money which will be available for sporting facilities in 1987. At that stage, as I said earlier in reply to Deputy Mitchell, we will be making our plans known.
When the Minister is planning these regional centres will he enter into discussions with all the local interests so that these centres can be as multi-faceted and multi-purpose as possible? What I have in mind is that a centre of this kind could be used by a community as a major educational facility or as a religious facility so that the building would not be for just one purpose.
(Dún Laoghaire): I fully concur with the Deputy's viewpoint with regard to the multi-purpose use of facilities. One of the problems we have had in this country over the past number of years is that we have a number of centres throughout the country none of which is entirely satisfactory for multi-purpose use. Unfortunately, a number of centres have deficits as a result of not having regular income. In planning facilities for the future we must be aware of the need to provide facilities that not alone help people to involve themselves in sport but will also generate income to help each centre run itself on an ongoing basis. If there was more co-operation between the various communities and sporting bodies in particular areas we could make better use of the moneys we are spending at present.