Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 20 Oct 1999

Vol. 509 No. 5

Adjournment Debate. - Refurbishment of Tuam GAA Stadium.

Mr. M. Kitt

As I raise a sporting issue it is only right that I pay tribute to the late Jack Lynch and send my sympathy to his family.

The Minister knows that we regard Tuam town as the home of football in County Galway. We have always stressed that Tuam stadium is good enough for county football finals, county senior championships and Connacht finals and is a stadium worth preserving and promoting. There has been a campaign in the media to downgrade and ridicule Tuam stadium. We saw this before the Connacht final when there were even reports of infestations of rats and mice in the stadium which were completely untrue. The Minister knows that more than 30,000 people attended the Connacht final in Tuam. This is roughly the same number who would attend a championship match or final in any of the other stadiums in Connacht, whether Roscommon or Castlebar or the proposed development in Pearse Stadium.

Great work has been done in Tuam stadium to improve the facilities, particularly by FÁS schemes. However, no major capital grants have been given by a succession of Governments for development work at the stadium and I ask the Minister to look at the application that has been made. There is no conflict between what is pro posed for Tuam stadium and the development of Pearse Stadium in Galway. Galway is the second largest county in Ireland and there is concern about the development of Gaelic football in the city and a need for facilities in west Galway. These needs should be addressed. However, I have consistently lobbied the Minister for capital funding for Tuam for the past two years. The Minister was hardly a month in office when he agreed to meet a delegation from the Tuam stadium committee. I thank him for granting that meeting and for the reception he gave the deputation.

If money is available for GAA pitches in Connacht – what are known as country grounds – Tuam is entitled to some of that money. The fact that senior college matches are played there is an important factor. Tuam is the principal pitch for football training in the county and that was certainly to the benefit of Galway last year. Tuam stadium committee seeks a £200,000 capital grant and I believe it is entitled to it. The committee needs to cover both sides of the stand, to provide fencing, particularly along the back of the terraces and to provide barriers for safety. The Tuam stadium application received a very high mark under the points system in 1998 but it was not successful.

The fact that Gaelic games are played in Tuam means a lot to the economy of Tuam and north Galway. The stadium has been used for county and Connacht finals and in a few weeks time it will host the Connacht club championship final between the County Galway champions Killererin and the County Mayo champions, Crossmolina. The Minister knows that this pitch is my priority. It was the first capital project I mentioned to the Minister and I look forward to a positive reply from him.

Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation (Dr. McDaid)

I thank Deputy Kitt for raising the matter of Tuam stadium as he has done on a number of occasions in the past. The sports capital programme was comprehensively reviewed by my Department in 1998. Following receipt of the report of the review group I announced details of the new programme late last December, based on the review programme's recommendations. These recommendations incorporate revised guidelines, assessment criteria and terms and conditions. Almost 1,900 applications were received by the closing date, 12 February 1999. Included in these was an application in respect of the development of Tuam stadium.

Each application was assessed and evaluated by officers from the sports unit of my Department. In the interest of consistency and fairness all the applications from a particular county were assessed by one officer. While all applications were treated on their merits the highest priority was afforded to projects in disadvantaged areas aimed at increased participation, particularly by young people. The assessment criteria under which applications were evaluated are set out in paragraph 34 of the guidelines which issued with each application form. Among the factors taken into consideration are the technical merit of the project, for example, whether the project complies with standard technical specifications from the relevant governing body and statutory authorities; the financial viability of the project, that is, whether, in additon to lottery funding, the club or organisation has sufficient funds or firm commitments for funding to complete the project within a realistic time; the level of local funding available; the need to achieve an equitable geographic spread of funds having regard to the range of existing facilities in each county and the need to achieve an equitable spread of funds among different sports and community groups.

A scoring system was developed under which individual applications were scored between 0 and 5 under each heading, depending on the extent to which they met the assessment criteria. Different weights, from 1 to 4 were attached to the various criteria, depending on their importance. The highest weighting was given to the disadvantage criterion, given that special priority is being given to the development of facilities in disadvantaged areas. At the end of the assessment process, each application received a score which decided its order of priority within its own county. Comparisons were made between the scores for applications in respect of projects from individual counties and they showed that in some counties a lower overall threshold applied than in others, primarily because of the different weightings attributed to various assessment criteria, for example, whether the county had disadvantaged status.

In July last, following this extensive assessment process, I announced grants totalling £14.44 million to almost 400 local community based projects and a further £2.15 million to six regional and national projects throughout the country. Any applicant which sought a report on the assessment carried out on its application was provided with such a report, which may be of assistance in the event of the organisation applying for further assistance under the new sports capital programme in 2000-01.

Discussions are at an advanced stage with certain national governing bodies regarding proposals for the development of national, regional and county venues submitted under the 1999 round of applications and I expect to make announcements in this regard very shortly. As the Tuam project received lower marks relative to other applicants in Galway – and it is up to the club to find out those scorings – it was not possible to grant aid it on this occasion. I expect to be advertising details of the programme for 2000 next month and it will be open to it to reapply and upgrade its application for support under that programme at that time.