Charlie McConalogue

speaker

385 appearances 3 recordings 1 series first heard Feb 2026 last heard 13 May

Charlie McConalogue’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Feb 2026 with 2.

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OTB Football · Minister Charlie McConalogue: Improving Sports Participation | Answering your questions on Sports funding across Ireland | OFF THE BALL · 13 May 2026 podcast

It takes so much to make a club work and a club take and to provide an opportunity within a local community to take part in sport, that that's so valuable.

And the most foundational piece in terms of our sporting infrastructure is the work of our volunteers.

From a government point of view, we want to support

or volunteers across the country by helping them to develop the facilities that they need to be able to provide that opportunity.

We're also seeing, and the Irish Sport Monitor today shows this over the last number of years, how we have seen participation increasing.

That's obviously bringing its own demands now in relation to the need for facilities.

So, listen, I suppose the main message I would have to clubs out there is that there is the opportunity for clubs to apply and it is open and you do qualify as long as you are a not-for-profit organisation, either a sport club or a community organisation or a school who works with a club.

you are entitled and able to apply either for facilities, development of facilities such as pitches or any other type of facility alongside that, walking tracks, floodlights, for example, or you can also apply for equipment.

And the most recent round, for example, had maximum grants available for facilities of €200,000 and maximum grants available for equipment of €70,000.

So we're planning on opening a new round now over the coming summer.

The programme for government commits to two rounds of the Community Sports Facilities Fund over the course of this government.

We're finalising the review of the last round at the moment with the objective of making sure that it works as well as possible and is as practical for

for clubs to be able to apply for and plan to open over the summer period.

And it'll be open for a two to three month window then for clubs to apply.

And the key thing I'd say goes, listen, it does take a bit of thinking and time working within your club, working within the club's organisation committee to decide you're going to apply, to decide what it is is the priority within your club that you're going to aim for.

So I would say to clubs across the country at the moment to start thinking now in terms of what you'd make the application for.

And when it opens up then to make that application to support the work that your club is doing.

So we're looking at that as part of the review now, but listen, in recent rounds, if you had a lease on land of at least five years or upwards, you're eligible to apply for developing facilities on that premises.

To be able to qualify for the maximum of €200,000, for example, you need to be able to show that you have a 15-year lease.

or else that you own the ground.

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