Records indicate that over 450 applications seeking grant aid under the sports capital programme were received in my Department in 1995. In addition, approximately 1,000 applications were on hand from previous years. The estimated total grant aid sought from all of these applications amounted to £62 million. I am not in a position to furnish the Deputy with a list of all applications received or to provide details of applicants who did not receive a grant allocation as this would place a serious strain on scarce staff resources.
A tabular statement of the organisations who were successful in obtaining a grant allocation under this programme in 1995 is contained in the Official Report of 23 January 1996 in reply to Parliamentary Question No. 357. Grants were paid in respect of a variety of projects under the sports capital and current programmes such as the construction of community-sports centres, club premises, pitch development, dressing rooms, scout dens and youth clubs and projects funded through Vocational Education Committees.
In 1995, my Department considered thirty applications from clubs-organisations in County Louth seeking grant aid under the sports capital programme to the value of £1.1 million. Projects were selected in ten counties for funding under the major facilities scheme. While County Louth was not one of these counties, nevertheless, 2.8 per cent of the funds available in 1995 under the recreation facilities scheme was allocated to projects in the county. This percentage allocation compares favourably with the percentage which would accrue to the county on a national population basis.
Statistics are not maintained in such a way that would enable me to give precise details of the percentage of lottery funding allocated to the county in 1995, I can say, however, that County Louth received 1.6 per cent of the total value of grant aid approved under both the sports capital programme and the vocational education committee youth and sport grant scheme.