Responsibility for the sports brief transferred to my Department on its establishment in July 1997. This Department's statement of strategy 1998 to 2001 outlines that our mission is to contribute to the economic and social progress of Irish society by developing an active culture in sport and recreation, including the achievement of sporting excellence.
The Department administered a number of schemes, including the VEC grants scheme, on an interim basis, in 1998 pending the establishment of a statutory Irish Sports Council. The Irish Sports Council was established on a statutory basis on 1 July 1999. Funding and responsibility for such schemes transferred on that day to the new council. Under the Sports Council Act, 1999, responsibility for the development of strategies for increasing participation in recreational sport and the co-ordination of their implementation by all bodies, including public authorities and publicly funded bodies, involved in promoting recreational sport and providing recreational facilities is now a function of the council.
I am not aware either of any undertaking having been given that the funds available under the scheme would be divided evenly between youth and sport activities or of the concerns of youth groups as referred to by the Deputy. The Deputy will be aware that responsibility for the youth affairs brief rests with my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science.
