Funds allocated under the National Development Plan for sports and leisure activities in the BMW region had not been spent and areas like the West and North West were being deprived of much needed facilities. This was stated by Independent TD Marian Harkin when she spoke in the Dail on the National Sports Campus Authority Bill which is designed to facilitate a major sports centre in Dublin.

The Independent TD said that it was not good enough that, as in other sectors of economic activity, lack of balance should pertain between regions in the allocation of funds for sporting and leisure activities. 

To date there had been a substantial under-spend of funds in the BMW region under the National Development Plan, she said.  The quality of the cultural, social and recreational infrastructure had a significant role to play in enhancing the attractiveness of a region as a place to visit, to work in or to establish an enterprise, the Independent TD said.

She referred to responses she had received from Minister for Sport, Mr. John O’Donoghue in January and November of last year in which he stated that there were not sufficient budgetary funds to invest in sports facilities despite the announcement of a programme in year 2000 and subsequent pledge to implement spending under the 2002 National Spatial Strategy.

The Minister’s suggestion that he would be seeking funds in the context of the next National Development Plan 2006-2010 was very worrying, she said, and she pointed out that under the existing National Development Plan there was a substantial under-spend in the BMW region on many programmes.

In prosperous and populous communities many sporting and recreational facilities would be provided by the market or through voluntary community effort, Marian Harkin pointed out.   However this was not realistic in many parts of the BMW region and the fact that state funds were essential had been accepted by the Government, she said.

She called on the Government to adhere to it’s promise to assist local authorities in the provision of multi-purpose sports and recreation facilities in the areas where they were lacking or requiring upgrading.  Marian Harkin stressed that they under-spend in the BMW region needed to be redressed and one way of doing that was to commit funds to sports and recreation facilities before the current national plan finished at the end of the year.