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 advertised on an annual basis.
Applications for funding under the 2005 programme were invited through advertisements in the press on 5 and 6 December last. The closing date for receipt of applications was 4 February 2005. A total of 1,362 applications were received by this date. No application was received before the deadline in the name of the organisation concerned.
All applications received before the closing date are currently being evaluated against the programme's assessment criteria, which are outlined in the guidelines, terms and conditions of the programme. I intend to announce the grant allocations for the programme as soon as possible after the assessment process has been completed. I expect to announce details of the 2006 sports capital programme towards the end of this year. It is open to the organisation in question to submit an application to that programme should it have a project which meets the programme's guidelines, terms and conditions.