I am a great sports fan. I play GAA. I play five-a-side, six-a-side and eight-a-side in Celbridge and Leixlip. Some might have seen me with a crutch in here which I lent to another Deputy. Of course, some rag put it all over social media. The reason I had the crutch in the first place is because my knee is damaged from playing eight-a-side last Friday when I went in full belt in a tackle and someone's knee went through the side of my knee. I would do it 100 times over to be able to play football. That is what so many men, women, boys and girls get so much enjoyment out of. Long may it continue. I was playing on an AstroTurf pitch and that is the first point I want to get to: the shortage of AstroTurf facilities around the country. You could compare it with Iceland, which has top class indoor and outdoor facilities. You might say it is snowy or icy in Iceland but it rains incessantly in Ireland. With climate change, we need to revisit our policy towards grade 3 and 4 AstroTurf pitches and the elite level ones. There are quite a number of clubs in my constituency. I will not try to mention them all, but on the men's side the biggest one is Lucan United and on the women's side it is Peamount United. They are both fantastic clubs and Lucan United will be playing in the new FAI national league shortly and I wish them all the best. One thing Lucan United mentioned directly to me as an elected representative is the shortage of all-weather pitches for youngsters coming up. It is impacting the GAA as well. During the Clonburris SDZ debate, I pointed that out. Unfortunately, for various reasons I will not get into, Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, the Labour Party and the Social Democrats voted down motions to move housing towards the train station, go up a level or two and create space for all-weather pitches. That did not happen. It was appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála which said not to worry, all of these things will come. Through successive governments, these things have not come and they are not going to come. South Dublin County Council has one shared GAA, rugby and soccer AstroTurf pitch in the Clonburris SDZ and a couple of smaller, across the pitch facilities for a population that could be in excess of 25,000. That is not sufficient. We have to start looking at all-weather pitches or properly drained grass pitches. There will have to be multi-use for different sports. There is one in Adamstown where there are two soccer pitches and a GAA pitch across and so many people get great use out of that. Japan is one of the world leaders in pitches that are for the more casual type of sport. We need to encourage people to get involved in sport at all levels, especially promoting sport for women. Women have lacked basic toilets in so many clubs, even at elite level, for many years. That type of investment needs to be redoubled. I note the FAI has a new 2026-2029 strategy and it is to be hoped the old days of financial mismanagement have passed by. We need a combination of national funding for the elite side of things and I pay tribute to the women's team. I hope they repeat the double against Poland this weekend and in relation to the men's team, but we need to keep investing in sport.

Sentiment score: 0.23

Just to interrupt for a second, can I say it was great to play against the Minister of State in Boyle?

Sentiment score: 0.62