National Sports Campus Development Authority Act 2006

Functions of Authority.

7.— (1) The functions of the Authority shall be to—

(a) develop a sports campus on the site,

(b) furnish and equip the sports campus with such plant, machinery, equipment and apparatus as it considers appropriate,

(c) manage, operate and maintain the sports campus, and

(d) encourage and promote the use of the sports campus by persons participating in sport at professional and amateur levels and by members of the public generally.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the Authority may—

(a) develop and provide on the site such facilities and services of a commercial nature complementary to the sports campus, including residential accommodation, as it considers appropriate,

(b) arrange with any educational institution or other body that is interested in the development of medical and research facilities for sport on the site and, if appropriate, elsewhere for the development of such facilities on such terms and conditions as the Authority considers appropriate,

(c) arrange with a body involved in the promotion of sport at a national level for the use by the body, on such terms and conditions as the Authority considers appropriate, of the site, or a part of it, for a purpose connected with sport including the location of the body’s headquarters there, and

(d) make arrangements with any person, on such terms and conditions as it considers appropriate, for the provision to it by that person of financial assistance (whether by way of the provision of funds or the undertaking of works) for the development or provision of any facilities or services or both in the sports campus and the use by that person of those facilities and services.

(3) The Authority shall prepare and submit to the Minister for his or her approval a plan for the development of a sports campus on the site which shall specify particulars of the following:

(a) the facilities and services to be developed on the site;

(b) the reasons for including each facility and service in the plan;

(c) the cost and timetable for the development of those facilities and services; and

(d) the phases of development of the sports campus.

(4) The Authority may amend the plan prepared by it under subsection (3) from time to time during the development of the sports campus on the site and shall submit the plan as so amended for approval by the Minister.

(5) The Authority shall, before the commencement of each phase of development of the sports campus on the site specified in the plan approved by the Minister under subsection (3) or (4), prepare and submit to the Minister for his or her approval a detailed plan in respect of that phase of development specifying particulars of the following:

(a) the facilities and services to be developed on the site during that phase;

(b) the cost of that phase; and

(c) the timetable for the development of that phase.

(6) The Authority shall, in preparing or amending a plan for submission to the Minister for his or her approval under subsection (3), (4) or (5), consult with the Irish Sports Council and such bodies involved in the promotion of sport at a national level as it considers appropriate.

(7) The Minister may approve, with such modifications (if any) as he or she considers appropriate, a plan submitted to him or her by the Authority under subsection (3), (4) or (5).

(8) The Minister for Agriculture and Food shall, when so directed by the Government, convey all the estate and interest of that Minister of the Government in the land described in Schedule 1 , or the part of it specified in the direction, to the Authority but subject to all trusts and equities affecting that land subsisting and capable of being performed and, pending such conveyance, that Minister of the Government consents to the development of that land, or that part of it, by the Authority in accordance with this Act.

(9) In this section “sports campus” means a campus of facilities for sporting activities, whether indoor or outdoor, and facilities and services to support such activities, which includes the National Aquatic Centre and may include an indoor arena, playing pitches, sports training facilities, a football stadium, administrative facilities for sport and medical and research facilities for sport.