Senator John McGahon- speech from 10 Oct 2024Order of Business

Leader, my hometown of Dadagh has an incredibly proud sporting tradition. It's a football town, it's a Gaelic town. We have had an incredible history of sport, no more so in the world of athletics, where we've recently had Olympian Kate O'Connor, we've had Irish athlete Israel O'Tunday. We have a very strong athletics and running history in my town. Clubs with a long history like St Gerard's Athletic, Northeast Runners, Black Rock, Dundalga, and Running Club, and I live in Seatown. Every night of the week I see these clubs out running the roads in darkness. And the reason that's happening is because we've had a substantial delay with delivering a world-class running track in the dark town since 2019, 2020. And a lot of the blame lies with the council, the local authority around planning issues, certainly not with the government who've been willing and able to provide substantial funding at every stage. And it's very clear to me that if we are going to support the athletes of the future, if we are going to have the next future Cates, the next future Israels in my town of Dundalk, we need a world-class running track. So that athletes aren't having to go to Drogheda, aren't having to go to Newry, aren't having to be out running the roads around night time and darkness in the middle of the winter. We need that world-class facility. And what I'm asking for really is to have as much pressure from the department, as much pressure from the government, to make sure that Louth County Council, in particular, be in a timely fashion, is resolving the planning issues in a timely fashion. And finally, after the last four, five, six years of this saga of a running track comes to a successful conclusion. And we have a world-class facility in the heart of Dundalk, supporting our athletes, supporting that sport, and the town of Dundalk can continue to champion a very proud sporting tradition.