Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 February 2024
3. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media for an update on the delay and suspension of Sport Ireland funding to an organisation (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6879/24]
View answerI ask the Minister of State for an update on the suspension of Sport Funding to the FAI and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The memorandum of understanding agreed in early 2020 between the Government and the FAI allowed Sport Ireland to restore funding of €2.9 million per annum to the association and to provide additional annual funding of €2.9 million for football development up to and including 2023. The memorandum also provided for a repayable grant of €7.6 million to the FAI towards the Aviva Stadium licence fees for the years 2020 to 2022. It was agreed at a point when there was a very real risk of the association becoming insolvent. The support provided ensured that this did not happen but it was conditional on the association implementing urgent and necessary reforms. On 30 January, the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, and I published a report on the FAI's implementation of reforms under the memorandum. This report shows that 159 of the 163 items from the various governance reports and the memorandum have been implemented. This is 98% of the recommended reforms. The remaining issues related to the implementation of gender equality targets. I am pleased to note that the FAI elected two women to its board last weekend, bringing the female representation to 43%, achieving another key commitment the memorandum. The final tranches of funding for 2022 and 2023 were paid to the FAI by Sport Ireland in December and January and there is no outstanding funding due for those years. Sport Ireland will continue to work with the FAI and all other funded national governing bodies to ensure the best governance practices are implemented and maintained for the benefit of everyone involved in football in Ireland.
I thank the Minister of State for his response. He is right regarding the suspension and the rules placed upon the FAI. That was very fair and just and I commend him on doing so. When it comes to the funding of the FAI, for me, there is an infrastructural deficit within football and in Ireland that is all-incorporating. At grassroots level, I see that every single weekend and twice a week with training. The question is, where is the plan? The director's report that was released by the FAI called for a €500 million investment over the course of the next 15 years to bring the infrastructural deficit up to scratch. Perhaps we can talk about that but I am not sure if it is the right vehicle by which to improve this infrastructure in the future. More importantly, how we get it? How do we get more kids playing on pitches that are suitable to their needs? We have an explosion of popularity in the women and young girls' games. We have clubs such as Belvedere Football Club, the future of which is in doubt as a consequence of an absence of playing facilities. This for me is related to the funding. How are we going to improve this infrastructure?
I thank the Deputy for his comments. I have mentioned already the funding the Government gave the Football Association of Ireland in 2020 and it has looked at that over the past number of years. There was a real danger that the FAI would become inoperable if that funding was not provided at the time. The main funding levers through which the Government operates for infrastructure are through the sports capital and equipment programme and the large-scale sports infrastructure fund. The last large-scale sports infrastructure fund was announced in 2020 and there are top-ups this year. Only two applications were received from the FAI and we will be looking for announcing another round of applications for that in the coming weeks. I strongly encourage football and the FAI to get involved in that to ensure that they are able to do that, together with local authorities.
Also through the sports capital and equipment fund last year, we put a special emphasis on football. We spoke to the FAI before the sports capital programme started and, to be fair to the FAI, it went out on the ground encouraging its clubs to apply for funding under the programme. The number of applications from football is up, and is up as an overall percentage of the pot as well. I think that football has real potential to do well in this current round that is being looked at at the minute.
That is fantastic, I say to the Minister of State. On the condition of the FAI, I know that the Minister of State often hosts phone calls with different sports clubs on the application process. I encouraged the Minister of State to continue doing that. I know that for the football clubs I have seen, they have spent all their time just trying to organise pitches. There is not really the administrative capabilities among many of them because, so often, they are just trying to keep the wolf from the door. Could we have some kind of public awareness campaign on that?
The FAI has a job to do in letting its members know about those large-scale infrastructural grants and I do not think it has done that well to this point. That has been seen with the pitches we use. Dublin City Council, as I understand it, have abandoned places I represent such as Fairview Park together with the damage they have failed to address to improve facilities. Perhaps we might be able to get the Minister of State's office to contact Dublin City Council to let it know that that that is coming up because there is a dearth of facilities there and if money is available, I hope that working-class clubs, be they football or boxing, which have been historically left behind in these grants, will be able to avail of them.
Local authorities, to some extent take their responsibilities seriously in sports but I think that they have a great deal more to do. We especially invite applications under the large-scale sports infrastructure fund from local authorities in the coming round because local authorities have the capabilities to put these projects together. There must be an emphasis on participation, on playing the sports. Yes, we want to see stadiums around the place and they are very important but any funding which we give towards infrastructure or towards any of those capital programmes has to emphasise how this increases participation in sport. The most important criterion we have is to get those targets up.
We need more facilities in the Deputy's area, in Dublin 8, in my area and in the area of the Minister, Deputy Martin, and the local authorities have the responsibility to come up with the plans to do this and to then seek funding from their own resources - Dublin City Council, for example, is well resourced as is Fingal - but also from our Department under the various programmes we have. We are more than happy to listen to the proposals which local authorities have.
