I wish to reply to Questions Nos. 158, 161, 162 and 163 together.
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, of which 58 were from County Kildare, including one from the North Kildare Club. All Applications are currently being evaluated against the programme's assessment criteria, which are outlined in the guidelines which accompanied the application form for the programme. I intend to announce the grant allocations for the programme as soon as possible after the assessment process has been completed.
Applications to the sports capital programme administered by my Department are classified geographically on a county basis and so it is not possible to provide information for a region within a county. I received 51 applications from County Kildare for the 2000 sports capital programme and 61 applications from the county for the 1999 programme.
Under the local authority swimming pool programme, I secured £45 million funding for an accelerated programme of investment over the three year period 2000-02 for the refurbishment of existing pools and provision of new pools. Currently, proposals for funding for pools in Naas and Athy are under consideration in my Department.