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An idea to make school facilities such as gyms and playing courts available to local community groups across the county has been described as a “real low-hanging fruit”.

Speaking this week at County Hall, Cllr Seamus McGrath said it is extremely frustrating to see these facilities underutilised when there are community groups out there who are crying their use.

The councillor said there is a demand out there among community groups, many of whom are not able to provide facilities for themselves because it is beyond their reach financially.

Cllr McGrath said: “The grant supports schemes would not be sufficient for example for a local basketball club to develop a purpose built basketball court.”

He added many schools are more than willing to allow community groups to use their facilities, however, there are a number of issues that often get in the way. These include the need for caretakers to remain onsite to oversee activities and to lock up afterwards, as well as insurance complications.

“We as representatives have community groups in touch with us regularly asking about the use of facilities but there are issues blocking them,” he said.

Cllr McGrath called for a support mechanism to be put in place to facilitate schools to allow the use of their facilities and said it was the kind of practical support the Department of Education should be assisting schools with.

There was a climate aspect to the motion too, with Cllr Gearoid Murphy stressing the environmental benefits.

He said: “It's important that we as a society structure our resources as sufficiently as possible in order to protect the environment and this is a perfect example of a way to do this. For example, rather than having the need to build and maintain two different facilities, we'd only need to have one used at different times by different groups.”