I propose to take Questions Nos. 565 to 568, inclusive, together.
The total amount sought under the Sports Capital Programme (SCP) has exceeded the total funding available under every previous round of the programme. Accordingly, it has not been possible to allocate the full amount sought to every applicant.
As part of the 2018 SCP, 431 applicants that were deemed invalid under the 2017 round of the Programme were invited to submit corrected documentation to allow their applications to be considered for funding. 186 organisations took up this offer and 170 (91%) were ultimately awarded grants including the organisation referred to by the Deputy.
As the application in question was a resubmitted 2017 application, the same methodology for assessment and allocating grant amounts was used as for the original 2017 applications. The full scoring system and assessment procedure in this regard is available on the Department’s website. All applications were assessed according to the published criteria including the likelihood of increasing participation, whether the proposed facilities were being shared, the level of socio-economic disadvantage in the area of the project (based on the Pobal index of deprivation) and the level of SCP funding previously allocated.
The overall score at assessment stage, the amount of funding sought and the amount available for that county (on a per capita basis) were the key determinants of individual grant awards.
Full details of the scoring obtained under the various criteria were provided to all successful applicants including the organisation referred to by the Deputy when the letter of provisional allocation issued. With regard to the possibility of providing any additional funding, it is of course open to the organisation to make a further application when the next round of the SCP is open for applications.