Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 6 Nov 2001

Vol. 543 No. 2

Adjournment Debate. - Community Development.

Mr. Stanton:

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this issue on behalf of the people of Cobh. Cobh is one of the largest towns in County Cork, with a population of more than 12,000, which is rapidly increasing. The town does not have a community centre, cinema, theatre, concert hall, swimming pool or playground. It has few facilities for young or old, it has no facilities for the handicapped and it has little industry. The people of Cobh, nonetheless, recognise the infrastructure deficit and have set out to build a community centre. Over recent years they have raised more than £300,000. A prime development site was donated to them by Cobh parish and they have obtained planning permission. It has also linked up with the COPE Foundation which is prepared to fit out and run workshops and recreational facilities for local handicapped people in order to avoid the necessity of their having to travel to Cork city each day.

A number of social problems exist in Cobh because of the lack of facilities there. Increasing numbers of young people are engaging in under-age drinking and being coerced into taking drugs. There is a high level of unemployment and Irish Ispat closed recently. People have become despondent on foot of what they perceive as a lack of interest in the town, which is not an island but which is cut off. Five applications have been made in recent years to various Departments seeking funding to assist their plans for development. To date, nothing has been received. At this stage, those who have worked very hard – to raise £300,000 in a town such as Cobh is not easy – have reached the conclusion that it may be a waste of time to apply for lottery funding. What can they do now? I hope the Minister will offer the people of Cobh a glimmer of hope this evening.

Should these people continue with their work and what should they do with the money they have raised? Is the fact that the application does not contain adequate reference to sport – even though attempts have been made to skew it in that direction – a problem? Will funds be provided for such community projects in the future? I am sure the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will agree that if there is no community centre – a place for young and old people to come together – social problems will arise which will have to be dealt with by the Garda and others.

I appeal to the Minister to use his influence in Cabinet to ensure that matching funds are released at the earliest opportunity to the people of Cobh who have come more than halfway at this stage and who are seeking assistance from the State in order to allow work on the community centre to proceed. If the Minister could indicate that before the year is out some Government funding will be made available, the people of Cobh – whose cause I was asked to fight – and I would be delighted.

I look forward to what the Minister has to say and I hope he will have good news for the people of Cobh. I hope he has researched this matter properly and has something positive to say because the people of the town are in need of a lift.

Mr. O'Donoghue:

I wish to extend the apologies of the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation for his inability to be present to take this debate. I thank the Deputy for raising this issue in relation to Cobh which must be one of the most beautiful towns in Ireland, if not Europe.

The national lottery funded sports capital programme operated by the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation provides funding towards the provision of sport and recreational facilities and is the primary vehicle for promoting the development of such facilities in Ireland. The Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Deputy McDaid, has allocated £106 million to 2,044 projects under the programme during the term of this Government.

The sports capital programme is advertised on an annual basis. All the applications received are assessed in accordance with detailed assessment criteria outlined in the guidelines, terms and conditions governing the programme. The criteria include the extent to which the project will increase the levels of active participation in sport-recreational sport and-or result in improved standards of sporting performance; the extent to which the project will serve to increase participation in disadvantaged areas; the financial viability of the project, that is, has the club-organisation sufficient funds or firm commitments for funding to complete the project within a realistic timeframe; given realistic projections of income from the project, the extent to which the applicant will be able to maintain the project after completion; the level of socio-economic disadvantage in the area and the current and planned levels of sport and-or recreational sport facilities in the area; the need to achieve an equitable geographical spread of funds having regard to the range of existing facilities in each county; the need to achieve an equitable spread of funds among different sports and community groups and the priorities for their individual sports, as identified by the national governing bodies. The applications are scored in relation to the full list of criteria and in comparison with the other applications from their county.

These criteria have been in operation since the 1999 programme. Cobh community centre has submitted applications to the programme in each of the last three years. In 1999 and 2000, the organisation requested a somewhat unrealistic amount of funding in relation to the amount available, of the order of £1 million, particularly given the low level of sporting element in the project and the lack of its own funding, for example, in 2000 it only had 6% of the project cost when the criteria specify that a minimum of 30% must be in place. On both occasions, the organisation was informed of its assessment score and given indications of the criteria in which it had not scored well.

In excess of 1,450 applications were received under the 2001 sports capital programme, 164 of which were from County Cork – including one from the Cobh community centre committee. Following this year's assessment process, the application from the organisation was unsuccessful. Once again its overall score in comparison with the other applications received from County Cork was not sufficiently high under all the criteria and the fact that it contained very little reference to sport was also a factor. The Department conveyed the decision to the committee in a letter dated 13 June 2001, together with a copy of the assessment conducted on the application including the score and explanatory comments under each of the criteria.

The Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Deputy McDaid, intends to advertise the 2002 sports capital programme shortly and I understand that Cobh community centre has requested that an application form be forwarded to it. The organisation is once again advised to closely study the guidelines, terms and conditions of the programme and the shortcomings of previous applications and to consider the project in this light. Should an application be received from the centre it will be given every consideration under the criteria and conditions of the programme.

I should also say that the swimming pool programme is also administered by the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation's Department. In relation to a pool for Cobh, the situation is that in July 1996 the Department of the Environment and Local Government, which operated the programme at the time, approved proposals by Cobh Urban District Council for a new swimming pool in the town. The UDC subsequently submitted contract documents, that is, detailed plans and specifications, to that Department in October 1997.

The documentation was examined by the Department's technical advisers and found generally to be in order. However, during the discussions between the technical advisers and the consultants for the project, the issue of management of the facility post-construction was raised and arising from these discussions the council has now made substantial changes to the original design and has submitted the documentation for revised part X planning. The council has been notified that further documentation is necessary before the programme's technical advisers – the Office of Public Works – can assess this proposal.

The proposed site for Cobh swimming pool is adjacent to most of the schools in the town. The work will involve demolition of the existing facility, modification of the existing swimming pool tank and construction of a separate learner pool. Other ancillary accommodation includes a centralised changing village and administration areas. A segregated leisure centre is also included and comprises separate changing facilities, a gymnasium and aerobics room and a leisure suite including treatment rooms, steam room and sauna. Site works include access roads, staff and public car parking, hard and soft landscaping, boundary walls, external lighting and mechanical and electrical services infrastructure. This facility would be used to the maximum extent by schoolchildren during the day and the wider community in the evening and at weekends.

The Dáil adjourned at 9.10 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 7 November 2001.