Vol. 540 No. 2
245 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation his views on whether a solution will be found to the current difficulties for clubs who are awaiting their deed of trust and therefore are unable to draw down lottery funding which has been allocated to them; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20418/01]
Under the sports capital programme administered by my Department, it is a condition for grantees to execute a deed of trust in respect of facilities in receipt of grant aid above a certain threshold. The deed of trust provides, inter alia, for a refund of the grant in the event of the facility not continuing to be used for the purpose for which the grant was allocated. To enable a deed of trust to be executed at present, the grantees must either own the property or have a long-term lease of 35 years. The deeds of trust are prepared by the Office of the Chief State Solicitor.
My Department is presently engaged in discussions with the CSS with a view to introducing a system which would expedite the execution of deeds of trust and improve the current procedures in time for the 2002 sports capital programme, which I hope to be able to publicly advertise before the end of this year. The Deputy should be aware that under the 2001 programme the grant threshold for which a deed of trust is required has been increased from £39,000 to £60,000.
With regard to the particular club to which the Deputy refers, a grant of £80,000 was provisionally allocated under the 2000 sports capital programme. I understand from the CSS that the deed of trust has recently been received from the solicitors acting on behalf of the club and that searches are being carried out at present. When the searches have been completed, the deed of trust will be forwarded to my Department for execution, which will follow immediately.
