I am grateful for the opportunity to raise the application for funding of Loreto Bray community sports project with the Minister. This project will be of enormous benefit to the town of Bray and its hinterland. It will make a real and lasting difference to the lives of young people in a town where the development of such facilities is not keeping pace with the growth in population.
Bray is the eighth largest town in Ireland. It is a designated disadvantaged area. The population is still growing, particularly its child population, and yet it does not have any muli-purpose astra-turf facility. This is the first real chance the town of Bray has to provide such a quality facility. The project is a community driven initiative. It will serve not only Bray but the Wicklow region where no such facility exists. It includes a multi-purpose astra-turf pitch, floodlights, changing rooms and is located centrally in the town on the Loreto campus.
A detailed feasibility study has been undertaken and costings estimated. The local contribution is £140,000 which has already been arranged. The grant being sought is £560,000 or 80% of the cost. The Loreto Bray community sports project is representative of a range of local community groups who have a well established track record of achievement. They pursue policies of social inclusion to community integration. They include sports organisations, education establishments and Traveller and disability groups. They aim to promote integration through sport and recreation and to increase standards of sporting ability, to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population for improved facilities, to increase through specific strategies, participation in sport and recreation, to provide for more certainty in scheduling games and training sessions and thereby lengthen the sporting year and to provide a centre for regional games.
The case for investment in such a facility is overwhelming. Bray has a shortage of such facilities. This project is centrally located. It is close to special amenities. It has planning permission and car parking facilities. Its management structure is properly formed with responsibilities already defined, including that of a full-time project manager. All that is needed to make this project a reality is a recognition of its merits in concrete financial terms. If the Minister wanted a classic textbook example of a well thought out quality project that meets the needs of the community and social inclusion specification of his Department he need look no further than that of Loreto Bray community sports project.
This application for a capital grant under the sports capital programme is one of many but I am confident that no other has a better case or a better formulation in terms of meeting ministerial requirements. Historically, County Wicklow has not done well under the two sports grants schemes. The review group report shows that Wicklow received the lowest allocations of grant aid. In 1999 County Wicklow did badly in that it received approximately one-eighth of the County Donegal allocation and one-eighth of the County Kildare allocation. In this instance nobody can possibly argue that County Wicklow did not provide acceptable projects. This project, offering a high class badly needed and multi-functional resource for an entire community fulfills all the right criteria. If funding is granted work will begin in July and should finish in March 2001. This is a project I would urge the Minister to sanction. It will be an investment that will show a return in transforming the sporting and recreational lives of the young people of Bray and of County Wicklow.