The national lottery-funded sports capital programme, which is administered by my Department, allocates funding for sporting and recreational facilities and equipment. Projects under the programme must be directly related to the provision of sport and recreation facilities and be of a capital nature, which, for the purpose of the programme, is defined as expenditure on: the improvement or construction of an asset, including any costs directly incurred in this process; and purchase of permanently based sports equipment, providing it is securely housed and will remain in use for five years or more. Under the programme, applications can be submitted by the following types of organisations: voluntary and community organisations, including sports clubs; in certain circumstances, schools, colleges and local authorities; and national governing bodies of sport and third level education institutions, where it is evident that the proposed facility will contribute to the regional or national sporting infrastructure.
All applications are treated on their merits and highest priority is afforded to projects in disadvantaged areas aimed at increasing participation. Applications from schools and colleges must be made jointly with local sports clubs or community groups and must provide for significant levels of usage by the local community during periods when the facilities are not being used by the school itself – at least 30 hours per week throughout the year – and demonstrate that the facilities concerned will meet an identified deficiency in that locality, as formally agreed with other local groups or the local authority.
While responsibility for the provision of facilities at first and second level schools rests with the Department of Education and Science, some preliminary discussions have taken place between officials of that Department and mine on the potential which exists for greater co-operation between the Departments in the administration of programmes aimed at meeting the sporting and recreational needs of communities. Arrangements have been made between the two Departments for a meeting to be held to discuss these matters. In the context of the Government commitment to putting in place a long-term strategic plan to ensure the development of local sports facilities throughout the country, the matter raised by the Deputy will also feature.
As part of that plan, an inter-agency steering group will be set up by the middle of this year to devise this long-term strategy. It is proposed that in addition to a number of other Departments, the Department of Education and Science be represented on this steering group. One of the issues to be considered by this group will be maximising the use of existing sports facilities by local communities and in particular those located in schools.
