A list of sporting facilities that could be used by visiting athletes in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics, is expected to be completed early in the New Year.
Minister for Sport John O'Donoghue told Labour spokesman Jack Wall that his department had identified a list of more than 100 sports facilities of "national or regional significance".
There was major potential for Ireland, because "with London 2012 on the horizon there is the possibility that athletes and teams from other countries may consider using Ireland as a training base in the years leading up to the Olympics. Ireland possesses the advantages of being in the same climatic and time zones as London, being within an hour by air travel, and Ireland will avoid most of the media hype that one often finds in the host country," the Minister said.
Progress was being made in devising a national sports facility strategy and Holohan Leisure Consultancy had been appointed to assist in its development. He added that €119 million would be spent to complete phase one of the Abbotstown project by 2010.
Mr Wall expressed concern, however, that "we have not yet completed the gathering of information even though it is almost 2007. When you read about the work being done in England, you find that the authorities there are finding it difficult to quantify the sporting facilities that are needed".
He called on the Minister to set a date for "fast-tracking the provision of the facilities which are required". The Kildare South TD said the London games "will be the nearest thing to a home Olympic Games in our lifetime. We should try to obtain as many sporting and tourism benefits as possible from the London Olympics."
Mr Wall commended the membership of the taskforce the Minister had established for this purpose. He said the "people in question have a wonderful grasp of what is needed" and he asked when a "real decision be taken to develop certain facilities to the same standard as the National Aquatic Centre and the facilities at the University of Limerick".
The Minister said the list of facilities would be drawn up over the next three months and "will focus on university campuses, individual sporting facilities and local authority facilities".
The department had written to third-level institutions last month about "how their facilities could facilitate Olympic and Paralympic teams". Mr O'Donoghue assured the Labour deputy that by early 2007 "we will have a more comprehensive idea of the quality of the facilities available, whether the facilities need to be upgraded and the level of expenditure required to bring the facilities up to the standard that will be required by potential visiting athletes".
He said "we have a number of quite decent facilities, such as the rowing centre at Inniscarra, the equestrian centre at Punchestown, the aquatic centre in Blanchardstown, the tennis centre in Glasnevin, the boxing stadium in Dublin 8, the training facilities in the University of Limerick and the hockey stadium in UCD".
