Niamh Smyth
Question:555. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when successful candidates in relation to sports capital grants will be notified; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47840/18]
View answerTuesday, 20 November 2018
Questions (555, 566)
Eamon Scanlon
Question:566. Deputy Eamon Scanlon asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when the allocation of the new round of 2018 sports capital programme grants will be announced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48150/18]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 555 and 566 together.
The 2018 round of the Sports Capital Programme opened for applications on Friday 7 September and the application period closed on Friday 19th October. By that deadline, a record 2,337 applications were submitted seeking a total of €162m in funding.
187 submissions relate to applications deemed invalid under the 2017 round of the programme who have now submitted corrected documentation. These applications are being assessed first and I hope to make allocations to this category of application later this year or early in 2019.
For the first time, new applicants who have submitted incorrect documentation under this round will be given the opportunity to correct their application during the assessment period. While there will be no undue delay in completing the assessment process, in view of the opportunity to correct documentation, the record number of applications received and the detailed information contained in each application, it is likely to take a number of months to have all applications assessed. Accordingly, I expect that it will be towards the end of Q2 2019, at the earliest, before the full set of allocations under this current round of the programme are announced.