Minister of State for Sport Michael Ring has insisted there is "no hidden agenda" in the allocation by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) of State funding to a club in the Minister's Mayo constituency.

In a staunch defence Mr Ring said there were special schemes every year – for boxing, athletics and rugby – “and this year we had one for the FAI and we allocated €30 million for Páirc Uí Chaoimh” and €900,000 to boxing.

He said that under the special scheme in the sports capital programme, the FAI made an application and received €1.2 million and “it picked the grantees”. Six projects were selected, including a club in Westport, Mr Ring’s home town.

Fianna Fáil's Niall Collins claimed lack of transparency as to why the FAI selected these six projects over many others. However, insisting there was no hidden agenda, Mr Ring said the allocations for rugby, Gaelic Games and athletics were no different. "The Government made a special allocation to these organisations, which picked the grantees."

Mr Ring said the Westport club paid €350,000 for land. “If it had been here in Dublin, the local authority would have provided that land for them. Last year it had to get rid of the girls’ football teams because it did not have facilities.”

He said the club never got a grant from the department under any of the allocations previously mad. He asked if Limerick-based Mr Collins was also objecting to three clubs in Munster receiving funding. Mr Collins said the Minister was “missing the point”. Nobody was against a club “in the Minister’s back yard” or anywhere else, “but a degree of transparency simply is required in this regard”.

Mr Ring said the allocations were made this way on a pro-rata basis with “no hidden agenda”. “If I picked the clubs I would be accused of being parochial.”

Mr Collins said that perception was still there, but Mr Ring said that when in government, Fianna Fáil ministers “on one day put a million euros into their own towns with the sports capital grant”.