Four years is a long time in the life of a child, yet that is how long the young players of Drogheda Boys and Girls Football Club have been without permanent changing rooms or toilet facilities since an apparently malicious fire destroyed the building at Marley's Lane in 2021. This is a club with more than 300 children playing regularly, alongside schools and visiting teams. Four years on, though, there are still no proper sanitary or changing facilities on site. For anyone, never mind for young children, changing in a car or, worse again, behind a fence or mammy's coat is not acceptable.

The club's committee, all of whom are volunteers, have spent well over a year trying to get a modest modular building delivered. They have secured planning permission and funding. They have engaged architects and engineers and have followed every statutory step asked of them. Applications for fire safety and disability access certificates were lodged in early February and still they wait. Of course, safety standards and accessibility requirements matter, and so they should, but we also have to look at the impact of this delay on a volunteer-led organisation and, more importantly, on the children themselves. Toilets and changing spaces are not luxuries but basic infrastructure and participation in any sport for any age group should come with dignity. I ask that the relevant Minister engage with the appropriate authorities to ensure that, within the statutory frameworks, this long overdue project can move forward without any further unnecessary delay.