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.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

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

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

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

And whenever at the moment, both myself and Minister Patrick O'Donovan are engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure and Minister Jack Chambers in relation to finalising the

the approval for this next round.

And obviously, as a former Minister of State for Sport, Minister Chambers very much gets the importance of investing in sport.

But once we've that concluded, we will then be doing a very strong communications campaign as well, because it's about getting...

The message, particularly to those clubs who hadn't applied before, particularly as well working with their sports partnerships to be able to support them in the work of applying and then to see that follow through in relation to the number of applications coming in and the government prioritisation as well of those applications.

Yeah, listen, I mean, in relation to astros and all-weather surfaces, it's certainly one of the things I would like to see come out and us make a significant dent in in terms of this Community Sports Facilities Fund round is seeing more all-weather surfaces actually developed across the country.

This last number of months, anybody involved in field sports had a very, very challenging, stressful time in relation to training not being able to be cancelled on so many occasions.

So that's something in terms of the finalising now of the new round that we're looking to see how we can particularly target and prioritise funding to see that developed.

And listen, in relation, the other piece we want to see is more collaboration, whether that's between local authorities or either schools with clubs.

And in terms of how we structure this next round, that's going to be a key focus as well.

And like the conversation we've just had in terms of how we get local authorities thinking about the provision of sports facilities where we can get land identified, that then provides the opportunity for sports to come together.

It doesn't necessarily need to be a battle.

I mean, there's lots of opportunities there whereby schools can work with clubs.

And through this particular round, what I want to ensure, and the message I give out to your listeners, is where a school has capacity to develop some sports grounds or facilities and work with a club.

Now, a school can't apply to the Community Sports Facilities Fund on their own.

They have to do so with a club.

But where they do so and come together, I think there's lots of opportunity there to really improve the level of participation and opportunity for people to engage in different sports.

And the point I'd make to Sharon there is, first of all, she can apply for equipment grants without a lease.

And second of all, the school can apply with the club.

But listen, I know it can be different.

Showing 161–180 of 385 · page 9 of 20