Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 September 2019
168. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when allocations under the sports capital programme will be announced; and the dates they were announced in each of the past three years. [39120/19]
View answerThe 2018 round of the Sports Capital Programme (SCP) closed for applications on Friday 19th October last. By that deadline, a record 2,337 applications were submitted seeking a total of €162m in funding.
186 of these applications were for projects that were deemed invalid under the 2017 round of the programme that subsequently submitted corrected documents. These applications were assessed first and approximately €7m in allocations to 170 projects were announced on the 17th January.
619 equipment only applications were assessed next and 466 allocations with a value of €9.8m were announced to these organisations in May. Work is now underway in assessing the remaining applications for capital works.
For the first time, applicants who submitted incorrect documentation under this round are being 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 further number of weeks to have all applications assessed with allocations announced shortly after that.
Details of all allocations under the SCP are available on the Department's website. The dates of the general grant announcements (not including appeals) under the SCP over the last three years are as follows:-
- The 2017 SCP grants to local clubs and groups were announced on 30 November 2017 while grants to regional projects were annouced on 22 December 2017
- On 17 January 2019, grants were announced to applications that were previously invalid under the 2017 round of the programme but submitted corrected documentation as part of the 2018 SCP.
- Grants to "equipment only" applications under the 2018 round were announced on 21 May 2019.
