I thank the Deputy. In February of last year the Government agreed to a range of funding allocations of more than €800 million to affirm its commitment to work with the Northern Ireland Executive and with the UK Government to make cross-Border investments that will make the island of Ireland a better place for all of us who call it home to live. This is evidence of course of our commitment to Strand 2 of the Good Friday Agreement and of North-South co-operation. It is the largest ever package of Government funding for cross-Border investments. As part of this wider set of commitments, the Government announced a commitment of €50 million through the Shared Island Fund to contribute to construction of a redeveloped Casement Park in Belfast. This is both a North-South and an east-west project. It is the Government's wish that the ground will be made available to a wide range of sporting and cultural events. Consistent with the Government's on funding for large scale sports infrastructure, principles for funding of the project will be agreed such that it is accessible to and will benefit a range of sports, and is operated to facilitate equality, diversity and inclusion in sport, including supporting cross-community relationships in Northern Ireland and throughout the island. I welcome the UK Government’s recent funding commitment of £50 million, as part of the UK Chancellor's spending review, for redevelopment of Casement Park. I have met, as has the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, with the GAA recently to discuss how the project can move forward without further delay. The Government and the UK Government have each made significant funding commitments to support the delivery of a redeveloped Casement Park. It is now for the Executive and the GAA to confirm their respective funding commitments for the project, which each date back to 2013, and to define the overall funding package available that will allow redevelopment to proceed. I am hopeful that this total amount would then be sufficient to see the project move ahead without delay. The Government will continue to engage positively with all stakeholders to encourage that outcome.

Sentiment score: 0.53

We are all united in this House on the importance of this project going forward. That is very much represented by the Government's financial commitment to the project as well. When the redevelopment of Casement Park was first mooted in 2013, a budget of £77.5 million was envisaged to complete the project, made up of £62.5 million from the Northern Irish Executive and UK Government at that time and £15 million from the GAA. Of course, as the Deputy said, costs have increased significantly and the overall cost projection in that intervening 12-year period. In recognition of this and of the significance of a redeveloped Casement Park as a facility for Belfast and Ulster both for Gaelic games and for other sports, that €50 million of shared island funding was allocated by the Government in 2024. However, we stand ready now to work with all stakeholders. At the moment it is really with the GAA and the Northern Ireland Executive to engage on their funding commitment, which dates back to 2013, when the overall cost tag was £77.5 million for the project. We will certainly work with both the GAA and the Executive to be as constructive as possible to see what is a really important project come to fruition.

Sentiment score: 0.44

I thank the Deputy. It is appropriate that we discuss the issue today, given the good progress we have seen. All of us welcome the commitment of €50 million from the British Government. Let us now continue to move forward. The stadium has been a tremendous loss to Belfast, the province and the island. It has fallen into disrepair and is not being used. We want it to be rebuilt and redeveloped so that its full potential is realised. We look forward to working with everyone to achieve the objective.

Sentiment score: 0.14

As the Deputy will be aware, for the Paris Olympic cycle 2021-2024, the Government provided a record level of investment of approximately €89 million towards high-performance sport. This was a substantial increase on the €59 million invested for the previous Tokyo cycle. In line with the Government's target of delivering €30 million per annum for high-performance sport by 2027, as indicated in the national sports policy, Sport Ireland has announced that €27 million will be invested in high-performance sport over the course of this year. This increased funding for high-performance sport will reflect, in particular, Sport Ireland's High Performance Strategy 2021-2032, which provides the overarching policy framework for the development of the high-performance system for the next two Olympiads, that is, Los Angeles the next time around, in 2028, and Brisbane in 2032. The international carding scheme provides financial support to athletes for their training and competition programmes. The primary purpose of this funding is to support Irish athletes in reaching finals and in achieving medals at European, world, Olympic and Paralympic levels. This year, Sport Ireland will invest €4.5 million under the international carding scheme and the player funding scheme for men's and women's senior teams. Through the Sport Ireland international carding scheme, 129 individual athletes and others on relay teams will be supported across 16 different sports. Sport Ireland also provides €350,000 of Government funding in direct athlete support to Golf Ireland through the Golf Ireland professional scheme. The task ahead is to sustain and build on what has been achieved to date. More athletes, coaches on stable contracts and additional services will be needed in the coming years to enable national sporting bodies to carry through well-funded, stable high-performance programmes. Therefore, the importance of collaboration in preparing for these games, in particular between Sport Ireland, the Olympic Federation of Ireland, Paralympics Ireland and the relevant national governing bodies of sport, should also be recognised. With the benefit of considerable support from the Government, I am confident that Team Ireland's participation in the next Olympic and Paralympic Games will build on the successes of recent games.

Sentiment score: 0.32

It is fair to recognise we have come a long way and a large part of that has been down to the funding that the Government has put behind our athletes, alongside really good governance and planning and strategic direction, both by Sport Ireland and the national governing bodies but, of course, on top of all of that and most important is the commitment and excellence of our athletes. That contributed to us having our most successful Olympic Games ever in Paris last year with a medal haul across a number of disciplines, some of which we did not have a strong history in. I was glad to address the Olympic Federation of Ireland AGM yesterday evening with many of the governing bodies in attendance and, indeed, to congratulate all of them collectively for the work they have done in supporting athletes. That is something we, as a Government, are committed to continuing to do. We are committed to continuing to back that effort and back our athletes with good strong funding but also, importantly, to making sure we are backing athletes in terms of their well-being. That is why we have also supported the Federation of Irish Sport in appointing an athlete support manager in September last year and also why we are backing the Sport Ireland athlete career transition programme to make sure athletes are supported in their transition from a sporting life to professional life after that.

Sentiment score: 0.74

I acknowledge the Deputy’s ongoing advocacy on behalf of sporting organisations in his constituency. We expect to open the sports facilities fund, which is for clubs up to a maximum of €200,000, next spring with announcements next autumn. It normally runs every two years. We have only ever run two iterations of the large-scale sports infrastructure fund, the first in 2019 and the more recent at the end of 2024. The plan is to reopen that in a shorter timeframe for the third round but it should be borne in mind the last one was a five-year gap. We would like to pull that back but that will be dependent on being able to get capital funding. We are currently engaged in the national development plan review for the next five years and that will be central to the decision on the fund. Our focus now is on those who did receive funding last autumn and working with them to make sure they get on with the project. We see drawdown by the 2019 applicants too and we are making sure all those projects proceed. I know it is something in which the Deputy takes a very big interest in his constituency and I look forward to continuing to work with him on that.

Sentiment score: 0.17