Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 September 2017
613. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he is ensuring that there is far more transparency in place before Government funding is given to the sporting organisations involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39230/17]
View answerSport Ireland is the statutory body with responsibility for the promotion, development and co-ordination of sport. This includes responsibility for the allocation of funding to the National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs). As part of the funding process, NGBs are required to submit an annual application which includes an Operational Plan and a Financial Budget for the upcoming year. Sport Ireland sets terms and conditions in relation to the funding provided, including financial reporting requirements. Sport Ireland monitors those bodies in order to ensure proper financial auditing and governance standards.
I have referred the Deputy's question to Sport Ireland to provide more detail directly to him. I would ask the Deputy to inform my office if a reply is not received within 10 days.
Since 2013 Sport Ireland has been encouraging all sports bodies to adopt the Governance Code for Community, Voluntary and Charitable Organisations. The Governance Code asks organisations to commit to key principles in areas such as leadership, transparency and accountability. Since 2016 a greater emphasis has been placed on corporate governance and last November the NGBs were informed that adoption of the Governance Code would become a condition for Sport Ireland funding. All Sport Ireland funded bodies are required to start the process of adopting the code this year, on a "comply or explain basis", with adoption to be completed by 2020. Sport Ireland has advised that, to date, 53 NGBs have signed up to the code - 11 have fully adopted it with 42 having partially adopted it with a view to full adoption as soon as possible.
In relation to the Sports Capital Programme, the latest round closed for applications on 24th February last. By the closing date, a record number of 2,320 applications were received. All applications are currently being assessed by officials in my Department and I expect to be in a position to make an announcement regarding allocations in the coming weeks. It should be noted that the full scoring system and assessment criteria is available on my Department’s website. Details of all allocations and payments under the Sports Capital and Local Authority Swimming Pools Programmes are also published on the Department’s website.
