Under the Sports Capital Programme, which is administered by my Department, funding is allocated to sporting and community organisations at local, regional and national level throughout the country. Applications for funding under the 2008 programme were invited through advertisements in the Press on 13th and 14th of January and the deadline for receipt of applications was 29th February for paper-based applications and 7th March for online applications. All applications received before the deadline were evaluated against the programme's assessment criteria, which are outlined in the guidelines, terms and conditions of the programme. I announced this year's grant allocations on 29 July last and a list of grant allocations is available on the Department's website at www.arts-sport-tourism.gov.ie.
The Department did not receive an application from the club in question. However an application was received from Dublin City Council to develop facilities that would be used by the club in question.
Letters issued to each of this year's unsuccessful applicants, including to Dublin City Council, setting out the reasons why they were not awarded a grant. As that letter pointed out, given the level of demand for funding and the amount of funding available under the programme, it is unfortunately not possible for my Department to allocate grants to every applicant. In this instance, while the application was valid the applicant did not achieve a high enough score to secure a grant.