Trevor Sargent
Question:25 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the procedures to be followed by groups applying for national lottery funding including deadlines, addresses and criteria governing applications. [7064/00]
Written Answers. - Sports Capital Programme.
The sports capital programme for 2000 was advertised in early December 1999 and it was necessary for all groups applying for funding to complete an application form and submit it to my Department by the closing date of 11 February 2000. Initial processing of all of the applications received has commenced and a letter of acknowledgement will issue from my Department to all applicants within the next week.
Applications received under the programme will be evaluated against the programme's assessment criteria which are outlined in the guidelines which accompanied the application form, and a copy of which was sent by my office to each Member of the House in December last.
The criteria focus on the following factors: the extent to which the project, in terms of growth targets, will increase the levels of active participation in sport/recreational sport and/or result in improved standards of sporting performance; the extent to which the project, in terms of growth targets, will serve to increase participation in disadvantaged areas; the technical merits of the project, i.e. if the project complies with standard technical specifications from the relevant governing body and statutory authorities; the financial viability of the project, i.e. in addition to lottery funding, if the club-organisation has sufficient funds or firm commitments for funding to complete the project within a realistic timeframe; the level of local funding available; given realistic projections of income from the project, the extent to which the applicant will be able to maintain the project after completion; the level of socio-economic disadvantage in the area, as defined by ADM Limited's indicators, and the current and planned levels of sport and-or recreational sport facilities in the area; the need to achieve an equitable geographical spread of funds, having regard to the range of existing facilities in each county; the extent to which applicants have consulted with other clubs, community groups, schools and the local authority in developing their proposals and the outcome of these consultations; in the case of projects aimed at attracting people from disadvantaged areas, the strategies to be used to attract them; the need to achieve an equitable spread of funds among different sports and community groups; the priority of proposed improvements-facility in relation to the club-organisation's existing facilities; and the priorities for their individual sports, as identified by the NGB.
A scoring system has been developed, under which individual applications are scored between nought and five under each heading depending on the extent to which they met the assessment criteria. Different weights, from one to four, are attached to the various criteria depending on their importance. The highest weighting is given to the disadvantaged criteria given that special priority is being given to the development of facilities in disadvantaged areas. At the end of this process each application receives a score which decides its order of priority within its own county. Comparisons between the scores for applications in respect of projects from individual counties show that in some counties a lower overall threshold applies than in others, primarily because of the differing weightings attributed to various assessment criteria, for example, whether the county had disadvantaged status.
In the past, grant allocations under the sports capital programme have been made on a county basis,pro rata to the population level in the county. I appreciate that under this system some particularly smaller counties are concerned at the level of funding which they have received under the sports capital programme. Accordingly, I have decided, subject to the number, quality and merits of applications received from counties, to set a minimum level of support for each county at £200,000. This enhancement to the scheme will encourage sporting organisations in the smaller counties to be innovative in the preparation of their plans for the provision of sporting facilities.