Thomas Gould
Question:184. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the funding in place to support sporting organisations in implementing Covid-19 safety regulations. [18705/20]
View answerTuesday, 28 July 2020
Questions (184, 185)
Thomas Gould
Question:185. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the supports in place for sporting organisations in which their running costs remain the same but have lost income as a result of reduced fundraising opportunities and loss of script, membership and affiliation fees. [18706/20]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 184 and 185 together.
A funding package of up to €70 million was announced on Friday 19th June to support the sport sector, which has been significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The funding package will be administered by Sport Ireland, which is the statutory body with responsibility for the development of sport.
This funding package includes;
- Funding of up to €40m for the three main field sports organisations – the FAI, the GAA and the IRFU.
- a Resilience Fund of up to €10m to support the National Governing Bodies of Sport,
- a Sports Club Resilience Fund of up to €15m to support clubs, and
- a Sports Restart and Renewal Fund of up to €5m.
The funding will be administered by Sport Ireland and will be invested through new grant schemes with Sport Ireland’s recognised funding partners, i.e. National Governing Bodies of Sport, Local Sports Partnerships and other funded sporting organisations.
Sport Ireland issued application forms for assistance under the grant schemes direct to funded bodies on Monday 27 July and will host a meeting with funded bodies on Tuesday 28 July to outline the process.
In addition, as part of the Jobs Stimulus announced by the Government last week, under the revised Restart Grant Scheme, rateable sports, leisure and fitness facilities will be eligible for a grant payment of €4,000. Further details of this scheme will be published in the coming days.
In addition, my colleague Minister Martin has announced a special fund of €2.5million to support the reopening of publicly accessible swimming pools, in recognition of the particular challenges pool operators in reopening to the public. This funding will be administered by Sport Ireland and full details of the grant scheme will be announced shortly.