Brennan was summarising the damning results of an audit of sports facilities here by a high-level task force established by his predecessor, John O'Donoghue last August to see if Ireland could cash in on the proximity of the London 2012 games by enticing foreign athletes to Ireland to train before the games.

"Given the paramount training requirements of Irish Olympic and Paralympic athletes and the exacting requirements of Olympic and Paralympic standard facilities, the audit has concluded that there is a limited capacity to host foreign athletes in training camps in Ireland prior to the London 2012 games, " said Brennan.

Despite the task force's blunt prognosis of Ireland's sporting facilities and the effect on Irish Olympic hopefuls for the London and Beijing games next year, Brennan said he had asked officials in his own department to "look again" at the findings.

The task force, which was also charged with examining how the business and tourism sectors could benefit from the London games, is chaired by the head of the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, Phil Furlong. It also includes the head of Failte Ireland Gillian Bowler, Des Casey, formerly of the FAI, former Dublin city manager John Fitzgerald, president of the Olympic Council of Ireland Pat Hickey, and the former presidents of the GAA and the IRFU, Sean Kelly and Noel Murphy.

A department spokesman said he could not release details of the task force report as it first had to be sent to the country's main sporting bodies for comment before publication. He confirmed, however, that the department's own examination of the report would be finished before the end of the month.

The spokesman refused to release a list of the sporting facilities examined by the task force. But Brennan confirmed in the Dail last week that one sports facility examined was the new national rowing centre in Cork, which was officially opened in May by former sports minister John O'Donoghue. The centre cost 5.4m and was fully funded by the department's Sports Capital programme.

In parallel with the audit and to "better inform the future work of the task force, " Brennan has also appointed Indecon International economic consultants "to carry out an economic evaluation of the benefit to the island of Ireland, " of the London games.

Brennan admitted that the most important benefits likely to accrue to Ireland from the London games are in the business and tourism sectors.