Ciarán Cuffe
Question:471 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the total cost of projects announced or promised by Ministers of the last Government between 1 January 2002 and 17 May 2002. [15299/03]
Written Answers. - Departmental Funding.
The national lottery funded sports capital programme, which is administered by my Department, allocates funding on an annual basis to sporting and community organisations at local, regional and national level throughout the country. The 2002 sports capital programme was advertised in November 2001 and an allocation of grants totaling some €76 million, to 853 projects, was announced on 29 March 2002.
On 19 March 2002, a grant of €3.8 million was approved towards the provision of a replacement swimming pool in Ballinasloe, County Galway. The application for funding was submitted by Ballinasloe Town Council prior to the July 2000 deadline for the local authority swimming pool programme.
An extra €3 million was provided in the Budget 2001 for cultural projects under subhead C3 of the Vote of the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. The then Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands decided that €2.64 million should be allocated to three specific cultural projects and formal letters of approval were issued to the project promoters on 3 January 2002.