Debate contribution: Northern Ireland Football Fund: Performance Programme

Debate contribution by Mr Gordon Lyons on 15 September 2025.

MLA

Mr Gordon Lyons

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

15 September 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statement

Heading

Northern Ireland Football Fund: Performance Programme

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5100103

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Unfortunately, the Member has got a number of things wrong. First of all, he is conflating —

Well, he has. He clearly does not know the process that was in place, even though I have just outlined that process. If he had listened to the statement that I have just made, he would realise that it is not appropriate to compare different tiers. That is what he is doing in the example that he gave. The Member is trying to put some blame on my shoulders and to say that, in some way, I engineered an outcome. The Member beside him is nodding. That is what he is trying to do. I stand robustly over the work of my —

I stand robustly over the work of my officials, and the Member is denigrating not only the work of my officials but other clubs that have applied. In his online commentary over the weekend, he sought to pit club against club.

It is true. Unfortunately, he has been disparaging about tier 2 clubs. He commented on whether they would be able to deliver, and he commented on their capacity, which was inappropriate

— which was inappropriate for him to do. He had a blanket response. Yes, I outlined some of the challenges that were there, but he gave a blanket response, and that was wrong and inappropriate. The difference between me and him is that I want to see all of our clubs progress. I am not pitting them against each other. I have ensured that we are at least moving forward in the process. I will take advice on what I can and cannot publish. Some of that might be appropriate for us to do, and some of it may not, because of what we have done in the past with regard to such applications. I will say this: I have heard nothing from the Member about how the process was held up for 14 years. Where was his criticism of the others who held it up for so long? I am a Minister who has got something done. I have got on with it; I have delivered. I will do everything that I can to help make sure that those who have not got through at this stage can move through. I am not going to take him disparaging other clubs, and I certainly will not take him disparaging the hard work and dedication of my officials that has allowed us to get to this stage.

I completely understand the concern that has been expressed and the fact that many will have been pleased at the announcement. However, it is important to note that it has been a robust process. I am more than happy to make sure that officials are available to brief the Committee so that any outstanding questions can be answered. I would like to think that, during my remarks, I set out how that has been robust. To begin with, officials checked, then officials came together to score, and then those were checked again by an internal moderator and an external moderator. Before that, when the process was being put in place, we made sure that it was robustly designed. As I set out in my statement, we engaged with colleagues in the Department who have expertise in such issues. We also went outside the Department and used someone who was the head of a large, independent organisation and has funding experience in such matters, and legal advice was received multiple times throughout the process. Therefore I am sure of its robustness and fairness, but I want to see more people go through. That is what I will seek to do. I am more than happy to assist the Committee in any way, because it is right that people have confidence in the process.

I thank the Member for her question. I have offered officials to meet all of those clubs — successful and otherwise. If clubs would like to meet me as well on that, I will be happy to do that, because it is important not only that they have confidence in the robustness of the application process but that we can help with next steps. I have repeated this time and time again, but I want this to be a rolling programme. Just as the footballing fund in England has been going for 25 years, I would love to see a constant rolling programme to make sure that we eventually get funding to those who need it. I hope that that will give some confidence that this is not the end of the process for anybody. I am happy to meet if that will help to assuage any concerns.

I thank the Member for his points and congratulate the clubs that were successful. For me, the most important thing is that we get as much as possible of that money spent in order to make the improvements that we can make to footballing infrastructure across Northern Ireland. That is why, as we often do in government, we over-plan. We took forward more applications than there is the budget for. I think that I could write the Member's question for him if, in two years' time, we were to come to this place, and I had allocated only £30 million to projects, and one or two bigger ones had fallen by the wayside because of planning or some other issue. We therefore did over-plan, given that we know that issues may arise along the way. My priority was to make sure that we spent as much of that money as we could. Of course, I want to see more funding for sport in Northern Ireland. I want to see more funding for the football fund in particular because of the impact that it can have across Northern Ireland, and not just on a Friday night or a Saturday afternoon but on the community. I will therefore be meeting the Minister of Finance to talk about the need that exists. I will also be looking at alternative sources of funding, and I believe that, through the process, clubs will also do that, and that is another reason for over-planning. Remember that government is always the last resort for funding, and if there are other options for clubs to raise private finance or borrow or for us to use financial transactions capital (FTC), all those options should be considered as well, and that is what I will be doing.

I appreciate the Member's question and agree with him that it is a good thing that the fund is finally being progressed after years of no action. I recognise his concern about the overcommitment, but it is important to note a number of things. Even if all programmes were to be successful, as I said to the Member who spoke previously, other funding opportunities might become available, and some of those would have to be delivered in phases as well. I am therefore hopeful that we can get additional resource or that clubs can find additional resource. If, however, we get to that stage and none of that materialises, and all the clubs are successful in getting through due diligence and business cases, we can then look at alternative arrangements for how we make decisions.

I want to make sure that I move the projects forward as much as I can within the budget that is available. I want to make sure that we are in a position to spend what is there now. That is one of the reasons for my reference to over-planning in reply to Mr Honeyford when he spoke about raising expectations. I have been clear that the fund is moving to the next stage. At no stage have I ever said that there is a guarantee of clubs receiving funding. In fact, I made that very clear in my speech last week, in my speech today and in public commentary. I reiterate that I would not want to be in the position in which I had allocated only £30 million and a number of those projects were to fall away, because the House would rightly want to hold me to account for getting to that stage at the end of another mandate with the money again not having been spent.

So, yes, I decided to bring in more projects than I should have, given the amount of funding that is available, but I think that that is the right decision. I also believe that there is work for clubs to do to make sure that they have maximised the amount of income that they can bring in. I will say this again: government should always and only be a funder of last resort. Clubs will need to demonstrate that they do not have access to the capital or the borrowing that would allow them to do that work themselves. I am hopeful that more will come in that way. I also want to look at financial transactions capital, because many of the clubs will do things that align with the objectives of the Executive, so financial transactions capital is possible. That could be done on quite a large scale, and I am actively exploring it. I have seen the projects, including those that were in the prioritised cohort and those that have not been successful at this point. I want to see all of them go ahead, and I will look at all available options to try to get that money together.

I am grateful to the Member for his words about moving the programme forward. Believe me, I understand the disappointment that many people feel. I have met many of the individuals who are involved, and I see the work that they put in. Remember that nearly everyone whom we are talking about gives their own time and makes that effort because they are passionate about the work that they do. They have applied to the fund because, in many cases, no other options are available to them. I understand that, and I get that frustration, but I was determined to move this forward. I will use the sessions with the clubs to get their feedback. I believe that I have set out today a very robust and entirely tight and defensible case for why we did what we did. However, we will always be open to feedback to see what can be done in the future, because, believe me, it is my intention to do everything that I can to make sure that footballing need is met right across Northern Ireland. I want all these projects to progress.

Absolutely. That is why it is so important that we go through this process over the next number of months. There will be an initial period of work that I hope will be very short. By the way, with all these timelines, which I am happy to publish when we have them, we want to go forward as quickly as possible. I do not want the Department to be a burden or to hold things back in any way, so I will allocate additional staff to make sure that clubs have the help that they need to progress. However, there will be that stage when due diligence and checks will need to be done. We will make sure that we look at other potential sources of funding, and then we can start to issue the initial funding for a grant so that help can be given with business cases. Finally, we will move on to construction. This is public money, so it needs to be handled in the right way. There needs to be propriety in how this is all done, and I will make sure that we keep the Assembly, Executive and Committee updated.

Absolutely. That goes not only for the clubs that got through and missed out but for those grassroots clubs that we need to support. That is what I want to do. There is opportunity for us to look at financial transactions capital. That can help in some of the projects, which will, hopefully, take some of the pressure off the funding. We can look at other sources of funding. I will certainly look at my Department's capital budget. I hope that the Executive will see the need to continue to invest in sport as well, but that has to be balanced against many of the other pressures that we face. That said, investment in sport is also an investment in health and education. I hope that my Executive colleagues realise and understand that. I am fully aware of the size and scale of the challenge that we face. There is a huge financial ask. We have a limited budget, but I want people to know that I will try everything that I can to make sure that we get that funding together so that the need is met, because it impacts on real people. For years, I have seen at first hand the change and difference that it can make in people's lives. Many of the football clubs that we are talking about are not just there on Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons. They are not just for the senior teams. Many people benefit from them, and I want to help everybody right across Northern Ireland.

The simple answer is that I never held the money to ransom. That is exactly what happened in the past. For 14 years, we had no movement on the Northern Ireland Football Fund or the subregional programme, as it was back then. I did something about that. I know that there are clubs that are disappointed; I get that. I understand that there are those that have not moved forward, but the programme has moved forward overall more than it has ever moved in the past, because I was determined to get it done. How it was held up was absolutely shameful. I was in the Chamber in 2015, and, in one of my first questions for oral answer, I asked when the programme would move forward. I was told that money could start to be drawn down by clubs the next year, which would have been spring 2016. Here we are in 2025, and none of that has been drawn down yet. I was determined to do something about that. I am glad that we are getting to this stage. That should be welcomed by everybody, because everybody is on the travelator. Some are now moving on to the prioritised cohort, but everybody is moving in the right direction, because we are moving it forward. That should be welcomed.

2,451 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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