A sports equipment "library" for community groups and schools is to be opened at the former Krupps factory in Limerick.
Mr Sean O'Callaghan, project co-ordinator and a PE teacher on leave from Crescent College Comprehensive, said athletics was dying in the State because schools could not afford sports.
The equipment at the library would be open to all sections of society and would include camping equipment, wetsuits and tennis rackets, heart monitors, bicycles, orienteering equipment and a list of up to 300 trained volunteers from the University of Limerick.
"This is all equipment that groups have difficulty accessing at the moment because of their expense. They are not used every day of the week. Then you have duplication of equipment at different schools which is unnecessary," he said.
The Community Outreach Opportunities Limerick(COOL) initiative was started by the Limerick Enterprise Development Partnership, which has taken over the Krupps site.
Sports and activity organisations have been asked to participate in a special project open day, the COOLympics, on March 19th, opening their facilities to non-club members.
"The whole ethos of it is to enable groups to deliver leisure and recreation activities to their members. We are trying to empower them to go further, to do more things by providing them with volunteers and equipment," Mr O'Callaghan said.