Martin Ferris
Question:317 Mr. Ferris asked the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism if RAPID areas will be adequately catered for during the next round of sports capital grant allocations. [29973/03]
Written Answers. - Sports Capital Programme.
The national lottery funded sports capital programme, which is administered by my Department, allocates funding to sporting and community organisations at local, regional and national level throughout the country. The programme is run on an annual basis.
One of the stated main objectives of the programme is to prioritise the needs of disadvantaged areas in the provision of sports and recreational sports facilities. In 2001 and 2002 alone, over €77 million was allocated in respect of 815 projects located in areas of disadvantage, representing 58% of total funding provided. My Department continues to evaluate how best to provide for the needs of disadvantaged areas in terms of providing sporting and recreational facilities and increasing participation under the programme.
For the 2003 sports capital programme, following consultation with the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, DCRGA, it was decided that disadvantaged areas were those that have been designated by Government for special support through the schemes administered by the DCRAGA, that is, not only RAPID 1 and RAPID 2 but also local drugs task force areas and CLÁR areas. Applications located in such areas received priority in the assessment process, provided that they met the basic eligibility criteria for the programme as highlighted in the guidelines, terms and conditions of the programme. Applications from RAPID areas which were eligible for assessment and which were endorsed by their local area implementation team received greater priority in the assessment than other applications.
The designation of disadvantaged areas for the 2004 sports capital programme will be similar to that in 2003. My Department has been singled out for praise by Area Development Management, the agency which administrates the RAPID programme, for this designation and for its ongoing evaluation of how the evaluation of RAPID projects under the sports capital programme can be improved.