Tyrrelstown NAMA and GAA club
Deputy Chambers questioned how NAMA’s infrastructure role fitted with its handling of Tyrrelstown GAA club and local development. The Taoiseach said NAMA funding was for access infrastructure and land development, not sports clubs.
The Programme for a Partnership Government states that the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, will fund new investment in infrastructure. In Tyrrelstown in the constituency of Dublin West, which the Taoiseach and I share, there has been a significant deficit and lack of investment over many years. How does the statement in A Programme for a Partnership Government tally with NAMA's approach to Tyrrelstown GAA club where it is trying to formalise a receivership process that will ensure the club will be expelled and removed from its only pitch. How does that tally with a NAMA investment programme and with the Taoiseach's stated ambition for sports clubs? What is he going to do about it?
Comment on this
It does not. That reference in A Programme for a Partnership Government in terms of infrastructure is NAMA funding infrastructure to access sites so that they can be developed. For example, the link road between the N2 and the N3 in the Tyrrelstown and Hollystown areas, with which the Deputy will be familiar, was part funded by NAMA thus allowing that land to be opened up for development. That reference was not planned to be a reference to sports clubs but rather to infrastructure that would allow the land to be developed for much-needed housing and other developments. However, I am aware of the local issue and we are working on it.