Vol. 535 No. 1
90 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation if, in view of the enormous dissatisfaction in certain parts of the country regarding the disproportionate allocation of lottery funds from county to county he will ensure that the situation is redressed when the next tranche of funds are to be distributed taking the merits of each application into account; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11996/01]
The sports capital programme for 2001 was advertised in mid-December 2000 with a closing date of 9 February, 2001 for the receipt of completed applications. In excess of 1,450 applications were received and these are currently being assessed strictly in accordance with the programme's assessment criteria, which are published in document entitled Guidelines, Terms and Conditions for the Programme. Under the assessment process, every applications is strictly treated on its own merits. Each application is scored between zero and five for each of the programme's criteria, depending on the extent to which they meet them and different 'weights', from one to four, are attached to the criteria, depending on their importance. Each application receives a score which decides its order of priority within its own county. Recom mendations, based on conclusions from this process and having regard to the amount of funding available for distribution, the population of the county and the quality of the applications from the county, are then made.
Every effort is made to achieve a balanced geographical spread of funds to benefit all types of eligible projects in all categories, having regard to the existing range of facilities in each county while also affording the highest priority to projects in disadvantaged areas aimed at increasing participation, particularly for young people. The sports capital programme provides funding for sporting facilities at national, regional and local level. The national grants are allocated in respect of the facilities of the national governing bodies of sport; in recent years such grant allocations include, for example, the National Boxing Stadium, a new National Rowing Centre at Iniscarra, County Cork and a new indoor stadium for athletics at Morton Stadium.
Regional grants are allocated in respect of developments throughout the country such as at GAA county grounds, Eircom League grounds, All-Ireland Rugby League grounds and new regional athletics tracks. Prior to deciding on the funding for national and regional facilities, my Department, in addition to normal assessment criteria, consults with the relevant national governing bodies of the organisations in question with a view to establishing their present and future priorities.
Where appropriate, my Department also consults with the Irish Sports Council, other Government Departments and with the local authorities in relation to their respective priorities for the provision of sporting facilities. In any particular year, the allocation of grants to national and regional facilities, arising particularly from the prioritisation established by the relevant governing bodies of the sports involved, can lead to some apparent distortion of county totals. However, I would expect that in the course of time, the distribution of such grants would be reasonably equitable.
Under the 2000 sports capital programme, for the first time, I introduced a new clause by making a minimum of £200,000 available for allocation to each county, subject of course to the requirement that applications for funding from suitable projects, which meet my Department's criteria, have been submitted from each county. I will again be invoking this clause for the 2001 programme as I believe that it has already, and will in the future, ensure a more equitable spread of funding between counties.
