Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin TD, has called on the IRFU to contribute towards the redevelopment of Connacht's Sportsground.
The State will provide €20 million towards the redevelopment, funded by the Department and the Project Ireland 2040 kitty. The rest of the cost of the €30 million outlay will be raised by private funding.
Yesterday, Government chief whip Sean Kyne said on OTB AM that the IRFU didn't meet with a delegation of Western TD's to discuss making up the €10 million shortfall.
Off the Ball asked Brendan Griffin if the IRFU should chip in to cover the cost of this redevelopment:
"If they are in a position to do that, they should. Certainly, I would always see our role within the Sports Capital unit through the Department as being to enable projects and to contribute to projects, but not to be the people who provide them full stop. In this regard, we know that this is at least a €30 million project and that figure with construction and inflation and everything else, it could perhaps rise. I think all the national sporting bodies already have committed a certain amount to various projects, but I would like to see them give as much as they can. If sporting bodies are in a position to give more, they should give more."
When asked whether taxpayers money should be spent on capital projects, Griffin defended the spending:
"I think the Connacht rugby story is a very special one. It's not that long ago in 2002 I remember I was a student in Galway at the time when people were talking about winding up Connacht Rugby. It's now great to see them in the situation that they are in at the moment. I think that they have a really bright future as well and I think that if the State can play a role in that, we should. Obviously, we shouldn't carry all of the can, we shouldn't carry all of the burden. It's all about balance and in fairness to the West, in terms of sporting infrastructure, we haven't seen any massive investment in the West of Ireland in quite some time. We have seen an awful lot in Dublin, we have seen an awful lot in Cork, we have seen Thomond Park for example in the past in Limerick receive major funding. We haven't seen that in Galway, so Galway's got its turn this time. We are there to try and support as many projects as possible, to try to enable sports participation, but also as well to create the facilities where our high-performance athletes can come and make the very most of their abilities, but also as well inspire the next generation of young sportspeople to take up sport and to be involved in sport and to be the very best that they can be as well. That's very much at the heart of the ethos behind the large scale sporting infrastructure fund."
When asked if the IRFU should be funding these projects themselves, to allow state funding flow to coaching and the development of young people, Griffin said:
"The IRFU pump an awful lot of money into the game at every level throughout the country and we believe they are doing a really good job as well. This particular project I think is a worthy one. It scored extremely well. There were two particular projects in the country that stood out in terms of the points that they scored in the process. This was one of them. It ticked nearly all of the boxes in terms of what you were looking for under this scheme. There are other partners and they have a role to play in this as well. I look forward to seeing the development, it will take a couple of years, but I think it will be worth it in the end. Hopefully, it will help safeguard a very positive future for Connacht Rugby.
