GAA applies for planning permission for training facility at Spawell

Dublin GAA is applying for a 10-year planning permission permit to develop a state-of-the-art training facility on its Spawell site in south Dublin.

There is already construction work on a pitch under way at the 35-acre site, which was purchased by Dublin GAA for an estimated €9 million in 2017, from a previous planning application in 2019.

A new site notice has been posted at the facility, which is situated just off the M50 in Templeogue, outlining plans to develop three additional floodlit pitches, one of which would have a 500-capacity covered stand and also a terrace to cater for the same number of spectators.

The proposed development would lead to the demolition of the driving range bays at Spawell Golf Academy and removal of some soccer pitches at the facility.

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If the plans get the green light from South Dublin County Council there would be four floodlit pitches at the site, three sand-based and one all-weather, with each having an electronic scoreboard and two dugouts.

Dublin GAA is seeking to have floodlights added to the pitch currently under construction. The 2019 application for that field stated: “The laying out of a pitch for the purpose of playing Gaelic games on part of an area of land currently in use as a pitch and putt course and the erection of ball nets at either end of the playing pitch behind the goalposts.”

There are also plans to construct a 2,050sq m single-storey pavilion which would include 10 dressingrooms, male and female changing rooms for match officials, a gym, physio room, first aid room, kitchen and dinning area, and a team meeting room.

There would also be a 600sq m indoor training facility constructed, while an all-weather surface sprint training area is on the plans too.

Dublin GAA is seeking to have a hurling wall at the facility, five metres in height and 105 metres in length, while it plans to incorporate a 1.32km walking/jogging track within the perimeter, which would have outdoor exercise equipment dotted along the pathway.

The facility would also have a car park for 112 vehicles, but the fallout from the development would mean the destruction of existing amenities, including the popular driving range and “demolition of part of [an] indoor soccer pitch facility” and “removal of part of [an] outdoor soccer pitch at Spawell Leisure Centre”.

Last November, Dublin GAA was granted planning permission for a Centre of Excellence on the 23-acre site of the old Hollystown Golf Club, also to include four floodlit pitches – one all-weather and three sand-based, dressingrooms, an indoor training facility, a gym, meeting rooms, a hurling wall and a walking/running trail.

Dublin GAA received a 10-year permit to build at the site, which it purchased in 2020, so there is potentially the opportunity for the Dubs to now develop focal centres on both the northside and southside of the city.

The Spawell site had once been earmarked for a 25,000-capacity stadium in which Dublin intercounty teams could play, but these two facilities will now instead be used as bases for the capital’s underage development squads, county training and also by GAA clubs in the surrounding areas as many outfits in the capital struggle to find suitable pitches.