I appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening to speak and make statements related to football. I have a couple of points I would like to make, My initial point is to say a massive thank you to all the clubs in the country, especially in my constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny, to all the volunteers, all the executive, all coaches, all parents and all players. It is a fantastic asset to have for a community. I have seen at first hand incredible developments in Kilkenny and in Carlow in soccer facilities, soccer infrastructure and increased participation in sport and soccer, particularly among females. It is fantastic to see. A huge amount has been done but we need to continue to do more to encourage participation in sport, especially among our females. It is in that context I want to talk a little bit about the sports capital grant or the community sports facilities fund, which will be announced shortly. The total allocation of that has increased significantly over the last terms. It had gone from €70 million to €170 million, and the last tranche was €270 million. There is a fantastic opportunity here now for all sports clubs but for soccer clubs in particular to really increase the infrastructure and the capacity of their sports facilities, whether it be dressing rooms for girls, AstroTurf pitches, floodlights or walkways around them. There is a significant pot of money going to be made available. I would encourage every sporting organisation and every soccer organisation in Kilkenny and in Carlow to get their applications ready, to give me a shout, and we will make sure we get as many of those over the line as possible. In relation to the FAI and the proposals for the summer league, which was a very hot issue around 12 months ago, I acknowledge and thank the FAI for its openness in discussing it and in allowing every county to decide what is best for itself. I am from Kilkenny and we are a massive GAA county. We love our hurling but we love our soccer as well. The summer calendar would not have worked because people would have picked one sport over the other. They can co-exist. I commend the FAI on allowing each county to decide what is best for itself. In Kilkenny and Carlow we have a fantastic situation where, in the winter months, our soccer is played brilliantly and we have the facilities for it with AstroTurf and floodlights, and in the summer the GAA takes over. They can absolutely co-exist. In the context of the sports capital grant or the community sports capital fund, I encourage the Department to support joint applications. We have a lot of situations where communities and areas have come together, and the local GAA club and soccer club are side by side. I encourage that applications involving a soccer club and a GAA club be prioritised in this round in order to make sure that amount of money involved is as high as possible. I pay particular tribute to a group of girls involved with Highview Athletic in Graiguenamanagh, which is my club. The first girls’ team was formed approximately five years ago. They have been campaigning and playing. Two weeks ago, they won the league. It is a great story of resilience. It was the first girls’ soccer team ever in the history of the club. There is now a girls’ soccer team at every single age group. They went on and won the league, but it is not about winning the league. It is about the friendships they have made and the spirit the group has formed together. It is about the coaches and the work they have done. It is about the parents. I commend every person involved in that group, from the coach to the grannies who dropped girls to training and the whole soccer community, because that was an incredible achievement. It goes to show the importance of sticking together, the importance of sport and the importance of resilience and the life lessons learnt. We need to continue to invest in sport and in football. I encourage the Minister of State to fight as hard as possible to make sure that as much funding as possible is made available to the FAI and the football sector and to the grassroots. That is really important.

Sentiment score: 0.38