Under the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism's sports capital programme, grants are allocated to sporting and to voluntary and community organisations for the provision of sporting and recreational facilities and equipment. This and the previous Government have provided €394.8 million in funding to 4,923 projects under the programme since 1998.
The Department is continually evaluating the operation of the programme with a view to improving the rate of grant drawdown within the context of the resources available, while ensuring the protection of the public funding allocated without compromising best practice in the requirements for the grant drawdown. In a number of cases each year, delays arise on the part of the grantees in meeting the requirements, for example, in supplying the required legal, financial and other documentation.
As I informed the Deputy in response to a recent question, some 1,070 of the 3,575 grantees in the 2001-05 period have not drawn down a payment. It should be noted that 898 of that 1,070 grantees in question, or 84% of them, were allocated grants under the two most recent programmes, in 2004 and 2005. I expect that the rate of payments for the grantees will increase considerably in the coming months. Under the guidelines, terms and conditions of the programme, a "sunset clause" provision exists allowing for a grant to be withdrawn if within 15 months of the date of allocation the grantee is unable to satisfy the Department that it is in the process of drawing down the grant. Grants of €12.99 million, which were allocated, have been withdrawn since 2000.
I am hopeful that the rate of withdrawals by the Department will increase still further during 2006, thereby reducing the number of outstanding grants, while taking into account the circumstances — for example, if the project involved is in a highly disadvantaged area or is of significance in terms of a large integrated multi-sport project — in which a timeframe greater than provided in the sunset clause provision is required so that the grantee can deliver the project.