The national lottery funded sports capital programme, which is administered by my Department, provides funding at local, regional and national level to voluntary, sporting and community organisations and to local authorities towards the provision of sport and recreational facilities. The programme is advertised on an annual basis.
All applications received under the sports capital programme are assessed each year on an individual basis and on their own merits by my officials in accordance with a detailed set of assessment criteria as specified in the guidelines, terms and conditions for the programme, which accompany the application form for the programme.
Applications for funding under the 2005 programme were invited through advertisements in the press on 5 and 6 December 2004 and 1,362 applications were received by the closing date. I announced provisional grant allocations of €54.385 million under the programme in July last, including €3.77 million to 28 projects located in several northside postal districts of Dublin.
I intend to invite applications to the 2006 programme before the end of this year and would expect to again receive applications from, and grant provisional allocations to, a number of projects in the northside Dublin area.