Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 July 2004
78 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the extent to which he or his Department has awarded grant or other forms of funding to various bodies or groups throughout the country to date in 2004; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19906/04]
View answerThe national lottery funded sports capital programme, which is administered by my Department, provides funding to voluntary sporting and community organisations at local, regional and national level throughout the country towards the provision of sport and recreational facilities. The programme is advertised on an annual basis. A total of 1,302 applications were received before the closing date for the current round of allocations of 16 January 2004. These applications were evaluated against the assessment criteria outlined in the guidelines, terms and conditions of the programme.
Following this evaluation process, I announced on May 7 provisional funding allocations to 717 projects totalling €50.8 million in funding, which was broken down as follows:
|
€ |
|
|
Carlow |
632,000 |
|
Cavan |
925,000 |
|
Clare |
1,027,000 |
|
Cork |
4,874,000 |
|
Donegal |
1,802,000 |
|
Dublin |
11,941,000 |
|
Galway |
2,702,000 |
|
Kerry |
2,976,000 |
|
Kildare |
2,857,000 |
|
Kilkenny |
850,000 |
|
Laois |
786,000 |
|
Leitrim |
479,000 |
|
Limerick |
1,925,000 |
|
Longford |
545,000 |
|
Louth |
1,294,000 |
|
Mayo |
1,594,000 |
|
Meath |
1,160,000 |
|
Monaghan |
996,000 |
|
Offaly |
857,000 |
|
Roscommon |
1,027,000 |
|
Sligo |
1,253,000 |
|
Tipperary |
2,048,000 |
|
Waterford |
1,580,000 |
|
Westmeath |
1,083,000 |
|
Wexford |
1,887,000 |
|
Wicklow |
1,700,000 |
As the Deputy will appreciate, payments are made on an ongoing basis in respect of allocations made in previous years and details of such payments are published in my Department's annual report.
I will shortly make further announcements under the 2004 sports capital programme in respect of funding for projects of major significance which, while meeting local needs, will also add considerably to the national and regional sporting infrastructure which is required both for increasing levels of participation and improving standards of performance.
In keeping with Government policy, the allocations reflect special priority for the development of sports and recreational facilities in areas designated as disadvantaged — RAPID, CLÁR and local drugs task force areas. Projects that have been allocated sports capital funding in designated disadvantaged areas may also receive additional top-up funding under the CLÁR and RAPID programmes, administered by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. A statement will issue from the Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív, at a later stage regarding top-up funding allocations under these programmes.
A provision of €15 million has been made in my Department's Estimates for this year to meet costs associated with the local authority swimming pool programme. So far this year, I have approved grant aid of €3,809,000 each to projects located in Tuam, County Galway, Churchfield in Cork City and Ballymun in Dublin.
In addition to sports projects, my Department also funds a number of cultural institutions, for which the funding to date in 2004 is set out below.
|
Cultural Institutions |
Grants to end June 2004 |
|
€ |
|
|
Irish Architectural Archive |
200,000 |
|
Marsh’s Library |
150,000 |
|
The Hunt Museum |
135,000 |
|
Maritime Museum |
17,000 |
|
National Print Museum |
75,000 |
|
Foynes Flying Boat Museum |
50,000 |
|
Irish Genealogy Project |
190,000 |
