Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 December 2010
185 Deputy John O’Donoghue asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport when the sports capital grant will be paid to a club (details supplied) to enable them to pay the contractor now that the work is completed. [47465/10]
View answerThe club in question has received two allocations under the Sports Capital Programme, €130,000 in 2007 and €100,000 in 2008. €83,601 of the 2008 allocation has been drawn down in three payments between October 2009 and March 2010. The Department received a letter from the club on 16 September last stating that the contractor employed to carry out the grant assisted works had gone into voluntary liquidation and stating that the club proposed to engage another building contractor to complete the work. The Department wrote back to the grantee on the same date setting out in detail the items to be submitted to the Department to obtain formal approval for the new contractor. The Department is currently awaiting a response to that letter.
€70,794 of the 2007 allocation was paid to the club in July 2009. A further invoice in the amount of €95,998.30 was received by the Department on 4 October 2010. It is a long standing condition of the Programme that the Department pays grants by reimbursing grantees' costs when they submit original, valid, paid invoices or certificates of payment which have been certified by an architect or engineer. Allocations may be drawn down by way of a single payment or in stages as a project progresses. My Department has more recently sought copies of bank statements from grantees to verify that invoices have been paid before grants can be drawn down. The Department wrote to the club in on 12 November 2010 seeking copies of bank statements to verify that the invoice has been paid. A response has not been received.
