I am glad the Minister of State is here. I want to start by paying tribute to my colleague Aodhán Ó Ríordáin MEP, who was something of a lone voice in the previous Dáil when it came to football in this country. As my colleague Deputy Smith said, this is only the second time we have discussed football in this Chamber, which is simply not good enough. I also pay tribute to the Irish women and their terrific win last night against Poland. They are role models for a growing sector of our communities, and young girls are looking up to them. However, there are issues around that which I will refer to. Unfortunately, Kildare County FC is no longer with us, having folded in 2009. I welcome the fact that Newbridge Town FC will form part of the new third division of the League of Ireland when it gets up and running. I am an avid follower of football in this country and of the League of Ireland. It is absolutely brilliant to see the levels that clubs here have achieved, particularly in Europe. I do not think enough credit is given to our League of Ireland clubs for their achievements in Europe over the past couple of years and for what they have done in terms of putting Irish football on the map. As has been said, we need to invest in the stadiums. Some of those stadiums are sheds. They are simply not fit for purpose and will not encourage younger people to get involved in the game or thousands of people to come out and support their clubs. In the time remaining, I want to talk about grassroots football, because that is where it all begins. The Minister of State knows from his area the terrific growth there is in grassroots football. In my hometown of Athy, we have two wonderful clubs, namely Athy Town AFC and Clonmullion AFC. Both of those clubs struggle for facilities. For the growing population of my town, there are very limited opportunities for new people to join those clubs because of limited facilities. I have raised with previous Ministers for Sport and I raise with the Minister of State tonight the need for local authorities and Government to invest in shared facilities. I will provide an example in this regard. In Athy, 13 acres are zoned for a shared facility, yet we are not able to progress that. We have 13 acres that would make a difference to both of the clubs I mentioned and to other sports clubs in the town. What should be happening in every local authority area is that the Government should be investing and local authorities should be managing matters in order to that there are facilities and that clubs which are so desperate can grow by being provided with access modern facilities. This is something that previous Ministers for Sport said was a great idea. Unfortunately, it stopped at that. I plead with the Minister of State to investigate this idea, which we in the Labour Party have brought forward previously. Shared facilities are the way forward. The cost of land is preventing so many clubs from expanding. If we have shared facilities, that could make a difference to the football clubs of this country, particularly those in my wonderful county of Kildare.

Sentiment score: 0.13