Trevor Sargent
Question:117 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism if his Department has plans to develop or fund multi-use public-private sports facilities in conjunction with local authorities. [5698/03]
Written Answers - Sports Capital Programme.
Under the national lottery funded sports capital programme administered by my Department, funding is allocated to projects directly related to the provision of sports and recreational facilities at local, regional and national level. While the majority of the funding allocated under the programme is provided to voluntary and community groups, there is provision in the programme for applications to be submitted by local authorities. For example, under the 2002 programme grants to the value of over €9.2 million were awarded to some 29 projects either directly to local authorities or for projects where the local authority was working in partnership with a sports club or a community organisation.
In terms of multi-purpose sports complexes available to the wider community, it has been a deliberate policy of the programme, particularly in the past two years, to fund a number of such multi-sport centres under the management and control of, and located on sites owned by, local authorities, keeping in mind the existing facilities in a region. Such applications must, like all others, meet the terms and conditions of the sports capital programme.
Some such sports centre projects include those for Finglas, Waterford city, Navan, Ballymun, Carlow, Letterkenny and Portlaoise. Significant contributions towards the estimated cost of these projects were made by my Department on the basis that the local authorities involved would be able to raise the balance of the funding required for their completion. Certainly, I would encourage them and those local authorities planning similar facilities in the future to consider securing private sector funding proposals to assist in completing such projects.
Of the multi-purpose sports centres listed above, those for Ballymun, Finglas, Letterkenny and Portlaoise, apart from securing funding through the sports capital programme, plan to include swimming pools as part of their overall sports complex and have also applied for funding under the local authority swimming pool programme to that end. The Deputy will be aware that under this programme grants are available towards the development of new pools or the refurbishment of existing pools. The maximum grant available is 80% of the eligible cost of the project or, in disadvantaged areas 90% of it, up to a maximum of €3.8 million. Currently there are 43 projects at various stages of development under the programme.
In the overall context of the provision of sports facilities throughout the country, and building on the substantial investment this and the previous Government made in this area, which includes allocating over €213 million to 2,900 projects under the sports capital programme and over €57 million under the local authority swimming pool programme, this Government intends to put in place a long-term strategic plan to ensure the development of sports facilities throughout the country.
It is envisaged that a national audit of local sports facilities will also be undertaken in tandem with the development of the long-term strategy. An inter-agency steering group will be set up by the middle of this year to devise the long-term strategy for the development of sports facilities. This group will include members from a number of Departments engaged in funding sport and recreational facilities and will examine further ways to ensure a strategic approach to facility provision. I would hope that the strategic plan for the funding of facilities will be in place for the 2004 sports capital programme.