Commencement Matters (Resumed)

Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (Deputy Seán Kyne)

I thank Senator Devine for raising this important issue which I, as Minister of State in the Department, am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Naughten.

As Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, has responsibility for the postal sector, including the governance of An Post. The Minister is acutely conscious of the value placed by communities in both rural and urban areas on services provided by post offices and is concerned to ensure the needs of those communities continue to be met.

Reflecting its commitment to sustaining a nationwide post office network and daily mails service, the Government has made €30 million available in State funding to An Post, €15 million of which will be used to support the renewal of the post office network and €15 million of which will be used for the continued fulfilment of a five day per week mails delivery service. This, in turn, will secure the future of mail and post office services for local communities throughout the country in both urban and rural areas. In addition, the company proposes to invest €50 million in growing and modernising the network over the next few years.

As part of its strategy for modernising the post office network, An Post has established a dedicated business unit within An Post called An Post Retail. An Post recently announced its plans for a modernised post office network. The vision centres around the availability of new services in a modernised, revitalised network. Such services will include a better range of Government services, financial services and e-commerce services for shoppers and small businesses. The announcement by An Post is supported by an agreement reached with the Irish Postmasters' Union, IPU, executive following three months of intensive negotiations, which has subsequently been endorsed by 80% of IPU members.

The announcement represents a positive first step in reinvigorating our national post office network and making it a viable service that meets the needs of communities across the country, particularly in rural areas.

Given the challenges it is facing, the company will have to pursue an ambitious agenda across its various business areas and there is likely to be significant change and new business models implemented in the coming years. This should be viewed positively as it will result in a solid, sustainable business future. Enhanced banking services are becoming available through the post office network with the smart bank account. It is expected that further such opportunities will be available across the network, especially as high-speed broadband becomes widely available through the roll-out of the national broadband plan.

As part of its consideration of the financial position of An Post, Government agreed that further opportunities for Government business through the post office network, particularly the payment of motor tax, should be explored. While Government policy is to offer Government services online, there is always likely to be a segment of the population that is not comfortable or proficient accessing online tools or services. The post office network is the obvious choice as the "offline gateway" for citizens with its nationwide network and existing strong relationship with offline citizens.

Department officials have engaged with An Post and other relevant stakeholders, such as the Office of Government Procurement, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer and other Departments to assess how additional Government business might be channelled through the post office network. Discussions have been positive in this regard. The Minister, Deputy Naughten, along with the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Ring, the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, and myself, are actively engaged in this to ascertain how we can bring more Government services into the local post office network. We are determined to ensure that is happening while also remaining cognisant of the need to adhere to public procurement procedures.

The first practical step that the Government is taking is the digital assist pilot programme. Under that programme, post offices will provide access to a wide range of Government services. Government funding of €80,000 has been secured, through the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Ring, for the roll-out of a pilot digital assist scheme. Ten post offices will be equipped to help citizens with online Government interactions. The ten pilot schemes will be located in rural post offices and will be in place later this year.

The affiliation with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection remains a significant feature for the future of the post office network. In April 2018, the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection renewed her Department's contract with An Post to provide pensions, child benefit and other social welfare payments in cash at post offices. Last year's contract amounted to €51 million for 33.6 million payments, and the value of the 2018 contract is expected to match that. This reaffirms Government policy which sees the post office network as a key piece of the country's financial and social infrastructure, particularly in rural areas.

Accordingly, A Programme for a Partnership Government commits to actively encouraging payment at post offices. All avenues are being explored to ensure that services available to the post office network are enhanced so that we have a strong, customer-focused network. The contract has been renewed. It was agreed, along with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, in 2013 for an initial two-year period with an option to extend annually up to 2019. That is welcome news.

Senator Máire Devine

I thank the Minister of State. There is some €15 million for growing and modernising the network. Who makes the decisions on the priorities and where this €15 million will be invested? Does the Minister have any influence over that? The Minister of State says people are not proficient or comfortable in accessing digital services online at home and he is providing some training within ten pilot post offices in rural areas. The point also needs to be made that a significant amount of those people who are not comfortable with online tools actually prefer human interaction. It is an important part of the fabric of communities, building resilient and stronger communities, and battling isolation. Perhaps the Minister of State cannot give me an answer on my local post office in St. James's Street, Dublin 8. Will he ask the Minister if he could make inquiries into this? It is historic. For that to go would spell the death knell of many more post offices.

Deputy Seán Kyne

I thank Senator Devine. I will certainly ask the Minister. I know the commitment reached by the Irish Postmasters' Union, IPU, and approved by 80% of its members, included that An Post will open up to 20 new offices in communities of 500 or more currently without a post office, with a post office for every community of over 500 people within 15 km of 95% of the population, and 3 km in urban areas. St. James's Street post office may fit into that. I am not sure.

Senator Máire Devine

No.

Deputy Seán Kyne

The Senator is shaking her head. I will ask the Minister to revert about that post office. I would not have the facts. It was not brought to my attention. The digital assist is a positive. It is a pilot but, subject to it working, I see no reason that would not be extended to many other different areas. As I said, funding of €80,000 has been provided. The proposed pilot locations are to be agreed between An Post and the IPU, which is positive. I will revert on the issue I have raised.

I accept the importance of the post office network and that there are people who prefer the social interaction that the post office provides. I have listened carefully to the Senator's views. It is Government policy that An Post remains strong and that the network remains strong. The agreement reached between the IPU and its members would be that there would be no compulsory closures of post offices. We are committed to a high-quality, nationwide service in both rural and urban areas. I think all Members would aspire to having maximum coverage of the country, providing an important service for communities across the country.

Approved Housing Bodies

Senator Victor Boyhan

I welcome the Minister. I had the benefit of meeting with him in the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government, though I tabled this matter before that. In essence, I am asking about the need for the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government to confirm his plans to establish a regulator for the approved housing bodies sector, to oversee the effective governance and financial management of the voluntary and co-operative housing sector and to safeguard the public and private investment in the sector.

I have received a number of comments relating to this sector over the last few years and am conscious that the Government is on to something here. It is part of pillar 2 of Rebuilding Ireland. Action 2.15 is for the Government to, "establish a Regulator for the AHB sector to oversee the effective governance and financial management of voluntary and co-operative housing bodies".

The deadline was quarter 1 of 2017 and, therefore, the Minister is running a little late. There are suggestions that there is a need for legislation and regulation to give effect to this commitment and it would be important to introduce legislation to ensure good governance in the AHB and voluntary housing sector. I acknowledge the importance of the sector as part of a suite of opportunities and possibilities to deliver much-needed housing for rent and purchase. The sector has made a good contribution and it is willing to continue to shoulder some of the responsibility and make a positive input to providing much-needed affordable homes for the public. I am interested in the Minister's reply regarding the appointment of a regulator.

Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (Deputy Eoghan Murphy)

I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. I am aware from his membership of the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government that he has a keen interest in the matter. We often battle politely in that forum and I very much appreciate his engagement, expertise and interest in this area.

Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness recognises the key contribution that approved housing bodies, AHBs, make to the delivery of social housing. AHBs are expected to contribute approximately one third of the 50,000 new social housing units that are to be provided over the period of the plan. The capacity of AHBs to deliver on the targets set out in the plan will require them to expand greatly and to seek significantly increased levels of external investment in the sector. AHBs that have statutorily regulated standards of governance and management capacity will be better able to access loan finance, which will greatly assist them to develop and expand in line with the objectives set out in the Rebuilding Ireland plan.

Under existing legislation, housing bodies are granted approved status by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government under section 6 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992 for the purpose of receiving funding from local authorities to provide social housing. This arrangement has been in place since 1992 and the Government acknowledges that a more modern regulatory system needs to be put in place to oversee a sector which has developed significantly since then.

My Department is working with the Attorney General's office in drafting the housing (regulation of registered housing providers) Bill which will provide statutory regulation for the AHB sector. It is intended to establish a regulator to oversee the effective governance, financial management and performance of voluntary and co-operative housing bodies in providing housing in accordance with the Housing Acts. The Bill aims to introduce stronger safeguards for public and private investment in the social housing provision sector, to establish a framework that will enable the voluntary and co-operative housing sector to contribute more effectively to the provision of social housing, and to ensure the assets built through investments in the sector are managed sustainably. The statutory regulatory framework will provide further assurances to tenants, the Government and investors and to the sector itself that social housing providers operate in a well-regulated and stable environment.

The regulator will be responsible for approving and registering housing bodies and the setting of regulatory standards. The Bill will provide extensive powers for the regulator in respect of the undertaking of inquiries, investigations and assessments. The regulator will also have enforcement and other powers. My Department is working with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to finalise the text of the Bill for publication as soon as possible. I had hoped that the Bill would be published before now, but the complex nature of some issues related to transitioning from voluntary to statutory regulation has required additional time. Notwithstanding this, I hope to publish the Bill before the end of the current Dáil term.

The Government is acutely aware of the importance of this sector and, in advance of establishing the statutory regulatory framework, put in place measures to prepare the sector for the new regulatory regime. In 2014, an interim regulation committee for the AHB sector was established under the auspices of the Housing Agency, which, supported by a regulation office based within the agency, oversees implementation of a voluntary regulation code, VRC, for AHBs.

A number of recent developments, including the decision by EUROSTAT and the CSO to reclassify AHBs as being part of the general government balance and the Central Bank's amending regulations to facilitate credit unions to provide funding to AHBs under certain conditions, are feeding into our considerations on the legislation and will ensure that the regulatory framework reflects the current and forward-looking policy context for the approved housing body sector. My Department is working intently on finalising the legislative proposals for submission to Government. In the meantime, I am confident that the interim arrangements for regulating the sector will ensure that it continues to operate to a high standard and enable it to fulfil its role under the Rebuilding Ireland action plan.

Senator Victor Boyhan

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive response. There is provision to initiate legislation in the House, and given we have little work to do and we are constantly told there are so few Bills on the way, will the Minister consider initiating this legislation here?

It is priority legislation. There is nothing to stop this legislation being initiated in the Seanad. Will the Minister give the matter some consideration and talk to his colleagues about it?

An Cathaoirleach

There is a provision for the Senator to introduce his own Bill, or his group's Bill, in Private Members' time.

Senator Victor Boyhan

I am happy to support the Government's Bill.

Deputy Eoghan Murphy

I thank the Senator. I will consider the proposal he has made about where we initiate the legislation. The Senator is aware of the importance of the AHB sector to our delivery stream. When we talk about the State building social housing and local authorities building social housing, we include what the AHBs are doing because they are one of the new delivery streams that were not there in the past. They are building fantastic homes, some of which provide for the quite niche requirements of some of our population who have different and special needs. They make a very important contribution to increasing the overall stock of social housing that we have at the moment. We are almost there in terms of the legislation. It is priority legislation for me. I want to have it published before the end of the Dáil term. If we can do it by initiating it in the Seanad I will certainly consider it.

Fishing Industry

Senator Paul Gavan

I welcome the Minister of State. The Joint Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation produced a report last December on the situation of non-EEA crew in the Irish fishing fleet under the atypical working scheme. It is important to note the report had the unanimous support of all committee members. We were all very concerned by incidents of abuse of workers in this sector. This abuse involved breaches of the National Minimum Wage Act, the Organisation of Working Time Act, the Terms of Employment (Information) Act and the Payment of Wages Act. The issues highlighted included: withholding of pay; arbitrary cuts to rates of pay; forced unpaid labour on repairs at port; rates of pay below the legal minimum; restrictions on movement because of one's status as an undocumented worker; inability to avail of public healthcare services because of one's status as an undocumented worker; sleep deprivation; verbal and physical abuse; dangerous working practices; working without mandatory Irish safety training certificates; workers left hungry; cramped living conditions; and poor sanitary arrangements.

Since the report was published things have gotten significantly worse. Last Thursday, the International Transport Workers' Federation confirmed that 12 possible cases of human trafficking have been identified in the industry. The Government is now facing legal proceedings unless it pauses the atypical working scheme. Seven of the 12 cases have been positively identified as suspected victims of trafficking in human beings, with five referrals still under investigation by the Garda National Protective Services Bureau.

The number of potential victims identified equates to one in ten of the permits issued over the past 18 months. The Department of Justice and Equality, in its statement, plays pass the parcel on this issue citing the Workplace Relations Commission and the marine survey office as the relevant authorities. It is worth repeating that. When faced with the most serious potential charges of human trafficking, the Department of Justice and Equality has said it has nothing to do with it and has passed the buck to the Minister of State's Department.

Will the Minister of State tell us what he intends to do regarding the recommendations in this report? The Department has had six months to consider the report and is now aware of the most serious charges of human trafficking in the industry. The Minister of State will know that the figure quoted by our Naval Service clearly shows there is a problem in the sector. There were 109 workers found working illegally on 86 boats. The key recommendation from our report is that one Government Department takes overall responsibility for the sector. We also call for a moratorium on the issuing of new permits until such time as all non-EEA nationals are regularised. We recommended a reconstituted task force be set up, including the International Transport Workers' Federation, in order to deal with the myriad problems in the scheme. We recommended a review of the marine survey office and a simplified and transparent permit process. Will the Minister of State tell me what he has done in the six months since receiving this report?

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Deputy Andrew Doyle)

I thank Senator Gavan for raising the issue. As the Senator is aware, the Joint Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation published its report on the situation of non-EEA crew in the Irish fishing fleet under the atypical worker permission scheme last December.

As outlined in the report, the matters that arose regarding the non-EEA workers in the fishing industry in late 2015 required a cross-departmental and cross-agency response and the Government quickly set up an interdepartmental task force to examine the issues involved. The main recommendation of that task force was the establishment of a sector-specific atypical worker permission scheme, which is an extension of the existing atypical worker permission scheme administered by the Department of Justice and Equality.

The scheme was established and is operated through the co-operative efforts of the Department of Justice and Equality, the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. As a number of Departments are involved in the scheme it is monitored by an oversight committee with members from relevant Departments and State agencies. The Department of Justice and Equality retains responsibility for immigration matters under the scheme while the memorandum of understanding put in place, which is led by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation with relevant State enforcement bodies, provides for a rigorous and effective inspection system. This system provides, for the first time, a structured and transparent framework for the employment of non-EEA workers within defined segments of the Irish fishing fleet. The scheme sets down minimum terms and conditions of employment applicable to these workers, which are in line with the general statutory terms and conditions applicable to workers more generally in the State. Any abuses or otherwise of the specified employment conditions of a non-EEA national in the Irish fishing industry are a matter for the relevant enforcement agencies - the Workplace Relations Commission, the marine survey office of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and other appropriate authorities of the State. Inspectors of the Workplace Relations Commission, based on newly acquired powers, have been trained and equipped with support from a number of agencies to board vessels and carry out their own inspections. This has already happened.

The role of my Department in the scheme is solely in respect of maintaining the central depository of contracts and supporting documentation submitted under the scheme, in order to monitor to ensure that the cap of 500 is not exceeded in any 12 month period. To date, 262 contracts have been lodged with the central depository. The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service has granted atypical worker permissions to 229 applicants under the scheme since its commencement in February 2016. The atypical worker permission scheme for non-EEA crew is still a relatively young scheme and further time is needed to allow the scheme to become established and to deliver on its objectives. There are undoubtedly enforcement challenges under the scheme. These challenges fall to be addressed by the appropriate enforcement agencies, and there is ongoing work in this area. Finally, cases of human trafficking are outside the scope of the scheme and must be dealt with firmly under the human trafficking legislation in order to eliminate such behaviour and to ensure that non-EEA workers in the fishing industry are only engaged in full compliance with the terms of the scheme.

Senator Paul Gavan

Will all due respect, the Minister of State has not answered my key question. When is he going to implement the recommendations of the Oireachtas committee's report? He has not addressed any of the recommendations. It is deeply disappointing. He commented at the end that human trafficking issues had to be dealt with under human trafficking legislation. That is true, but the problem is that the Department of Justice and Equality said last week that it had nothing to do with that Department.

Deputy Andrew Doyle

It is a Garda matter.

Senator Paul Gavan

It is pass the parcel, in effect. No Department is willing to take responsibility for the disgraceful abuses taking place in the fishing sector. That was the main recommendation of our report but the Minister of State did not address the question I asked. I can confirm on the record here that all 12 recommendations have been ignored. In time to come there will be a tribunal of inquiry on what is happening in this sector and the one thing the Minister will not be able to say is that he did not know. He knows, and he has done nothing about it.

Deputy Andrew Doyle

I reject that. This is a new scheme that was started following the work of the previous Government. Four Departments were required to implement it. There is cross-departmental co-operation on it and there is a memorandum of understanding. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's role is to hold the numbers in the depository and to deal with matters relating to the fishing sector.

I have comments on five of the key recommendations. One recommendation is that a single Government Department takes responsibility for the fishing industry. I do not think that is possible. Another is that vessels under 15 m should be included in the scheme. The reason they were not included in the first place is that vessels under 15 m tend to be smaller and generally provide local employment. It was not intended that this scheme be open to all fishing boats around the country. It was felt that some should be reserved for local employment. As someone who chaired a committee in the last Oireachtas which considered the role of coastal and island communities in the small fishing sector, the whole idea was that we would provide local employment for local people. The reconstituted task force should be considered but I am not sure that it should run in the way the Senator envisages. The report recommends that permissions be linked to the employee and not the specific vessel or owner. In that case the contract would be gone and it would be a wholly different scheme. It would not be the scheme that is in place.

Finally, it is recommended that applications should be made directly to a central registry that is open to the public. This scheme as designed is based on a contract between an individual who is a non-EEA citizen and an owner. That contract has to be signed by a solicitor, witnessed and given legal status before it can go to the Department of Justice and Equality and before that permission can be issued. The Senator is talking about designing a completely new scheme. He wants to do this before the current scheme is fine-tuned and made work. On eliminating trafficking, I have no doubt that the trafficking dealt with in recent media coverage relates to people who are not part of this scheme. That is part of the problem. They came in a different way. They were not participants in the scheme in the first place and they should be dealt with by the law. The Garda Síochána is the appropriate authority to deal with that particular scenario.

Swimming Pool Programme

Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee

As the Minister probably knows, Fingal is the fastest growing county in Ireland and north Fingal is the fastest growing area within it. North Fingal includes Balbriggan, Balrothery, Skerries, Naul, Rush, Lusk, Garristown, Oldtown, Donabate and Portrane. The area has a rapidly expanding population and substantial future growth is planned. To give an idea of the size of the towns involved, Balbriggan has a population of approximately 26,000 and Rush currently has a population of approximately 10,000. As I have said, there are also future plans for the area and, as I have also outlined, the demographic is young.

There is no swimming pool in the north Fingal area. The children of north Fingal cannot readily avail of swimming lessons, which are now seen as almost a standard part of the school curriculum. They cannot avail of something as basic as swimming lessons without having to travel long distances and incur the additional costs of that travel. Children with autism and ADHD particularly benefit from water-based therapies but unfortunately the distances such children would have to travel from north Fingal in order to avail of such therapies in a swimming pool would negate any benefit they might derive from them. Older people can also derive great health and social benefits from access to a swimming pool within their community.

Plans for a swimming pool for north Fingal stretch back to the year 2000 when a swimming pool for Skerries was planned through Fingal County Council, which applied for the local authority swimming pool programme administered through the Minister's Department. When these plans fell through Fingal County Council put forward a plan for construction of a swimming pool in conjunction with Balbriggan Rugby Football Club in Balrothery. These plans ultimately fell through and in January 2016 Fingal County Council voluntarily withdrew from the local authority swimming pool programme. I raised the need for a swimming pool in the area by way of a Commencement matter on 9 May 2017. I was told by the Minister of State, Deputy Helen McEntee, who attended the Chamber on that date that it was now open to Fingal County Council to apply for a sports grant which is capped at €500,000 due to its withdrawal from the local authority swimming pool programme.

This is significantly less than the €3.8 million per project which was available under the previous local authority swimming pool programme. I was told on that occasion that the future funding of swimming pools was being examined by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport as part of a review of national sports policy which was to have a particular focus on how sporting facilities are to be funded into the future. I was advised that the Department was in the process of making a submission under the mid-term capital review to seek additional funding for large-scale sports infrastructure like swimming pools. I was told that if this funding was received, it would allow the Department to give further consideration to new projects like swimming pools, thereby allowing county councils to submit plans for such projects.

I would like to know what the outcome of the review of national sports policy was, particularly insofar as it related to the construction of swimming pools. I would like to know whether the Department has received additional funding under the mid-term capital review plan. If so, has a new programme been established? I emphasise the urgent need for a swimming pool in the northern part of Fingal, especially in light of the demographics of the area and the lack of facilities to match the housing that has been built in the area in recent years and the housing that is planned for the future. We should not pile houses into an area without providing adequate facilities for the community. The people of Balbriggan recently came together to form a committee to press for the development of a swimming pool. This is an expression of the level of public support and demand for a swimming pool in north Fingal. I would appreciate it if the Minister could address the specific points I have raised with regard to this issue.

Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (Deputy Shane Ross)

I thank Senator Clifford-Lee for raising this topic, with which I have a great deal of sympathy. Swimming pools are an essential part of a child's education and upbringing. It would be every Minister's ambition to have a swimming pool in every populated area. That is not quite possible, but we are doing our very best to achieve it.

The local authority swimming pool programme, which is administered by my Department, provides grant aid towards the capital costs of new public swimming pools or the refurbishment of existing pools. The programme provides for maximum grant aid of €3.8 million per project. The four principal stages which must be undertaken by a local authority in developing a swimming pool project are: preliminary report stage, including feasibility study; contract document stage; tender stage; and construction stage.

Regarding the provision of a swimming pool in north Fingal, a proposal for a new pool in Skerries, County Dublin, was originally included in the 2000 round of the local authority swimming pool programme. The Department approved the preliminary report in January 2001. As no contract documents or tender reports were ever received for Skerries, no grant was approved for that project. The Skerries project was planned as a public private partnership. In March 2009, the Department received a letter from Fingal County Council stating that this proposal was terminated due to difficulties with the residential element of the proposed scheme and that the new priority for Fingal County Council was to locate a pool in Balbriggan. In April 2009, Fingal County Council forwarded a preliminary report for the proposed Balbriggan pool. As the Senator has outlined, the proposal was for Balbriggan Rugby Football Club, in conjunction with a private operator, to build a swimming pool on the club's grounds at Balrothery. It was proposed that the pool would be managed by the swimming pool operator, which would put finance in place for the development.

The OPW approved the preliminary report for the Balbriggan proposal in May 2009, subject to a minor modification and subject to the council and the Department being satisfied that the tender process would be transparent and fair. The council was asked to consider issues of procurement and state aid to a private operator and to ensure all relevant EU directives would be adhered to. I understand that due to difficulties in adhering to these requirements, no further progress was made with the project at the Balbriggan site.

Accordingly, my Department wrote to Fingal County Council in January 2016 to raise concerns about the delay and to ask the council to consider withdrawing this project from the local authority swimming pool programme. The letter stated that if Fingal County Council agreed to the withdrawal of Balbriggan swimming pool from the local authority swimming pool programme, it may be possible for Fingal County Council and Balbriggan Rugby Football Club to receive a sports capital programme allocation instead. Fingal County Council agreed to the voluntary withdrawal of the Balbriggan project from the local authority swimming pool programme and the Department formally notified the council of its removal in April 2016.

Fingal County Council subsequently applied for a special sports capital programme allocation for Balbriggan RFC. The application must meet all of the usual terms and conditions of the programme and funding is capped at €500,000. I understand the application is under ongoing consideration in my Department, with Balbriggan RFC recently having received approval to go to tender.

With regard to swimming pools, the projects remaining in the current local authority swimming pool programme are those in Castlebar, Buncrana, Edenderry and Lucan, all of which are at various stages. The priority in 2018 is to progress these projects.

With regard to the future funding of swimming pools, the issue the Senator raises, the national development plan contains a commitment to establish a new "Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund", with at least €100 million available in the coming years. My officials are in the process of drafting the terms and conditions of the new fund and engaging with relevant stakeholders in that regard. An announcement on when applications will be accepted will be made once the terms and conditions have been finalised. It will be open to all local authorities, including Fingal County Council, to submit an application for any suitable project under the terms that will apply. In addition, the upcoming national sports policy which I expect to be considered by the Government in the coming weeks, with a view to its publication shortly thereafter, will include a specific focus on how the Government should fund sports facilities, including swimming pools, in the years ahead.

I hope this clarifies the current position. I thank the Senator for raising the issue.

Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee

I thank the Minister for his response which is practically identical to the one I received on the same issue this time last year. The only difference is that whereas the Minister indicated that the priority in 2018 would be to progress the projects mentioned, I was informed last year that the priority in 2017 was to progress them. It appears that the project has not advanced in the meantime.

The Minister referred to the commitment to establish a large-scale sports infrastructure fund and stated €100 million would be available in the coming years. Is this a reference to the additional funding which he last year indicated would be allocated to his Department in the mid-term capital review? If so, has this funding been received or does the Minister hope to receive it in the future?

The Minister stated the terms and conditions for the fund were being finalised. Will they be finalised by the end of this month or perhaps by the end of the year? I would appreciate it if the Minister provided a timeframe.

Deputy Shane Ross

I thought I had answered the Senator's question. It is somewhat unfair to state the fund has not progressed. It has because we have the results of the mid-term capital review which we did not have this time last year. In addition, as part of the Department's submission in the mid-term review of the capital plan, additional funding of €100 million has been allocated for a large-scale sports infrastructure fund. This will allow consideration to be given to new swimming pool projects. It will be open to all local authorities, including Fingal County Council, to submit an application under the terms that will apply. The relevant division of the Department is in the process of drafting the terms and conditions for the new large-scale sports infrastructure fund and engaging with the relevant stakeholders in that regard. I expect applications to be ready in the coming months and allocations to be made as soon as possible thereafter.

Seanad Éireann díospóireacht - Tuesday, 22 May 2018