Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 September 2021
320. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if he has engaged with Longford County Council regarding proposals to establish a skate park in Longford town. [46820/21]
View answerIn relation to providing financial assistance for new sports facilities, my Department operates two grant schemes.
The Sports Capital and Equipment Programme (SCEP) is the primary vehicle for Government support for the development of sports and physical recreation facilities and the purchase of non-personal sports equipment throughout the country. The 2020 round of the SCEP closed for applications on Monday, 1 March 2021. By the closing date, over 3,100 applications were submitted seeking over €200 million in funding. This is the highest number of applications ever received.
The scoring system and assessment procedures were published earlier this year and all applications are being assessed accordingly. Approximately one thousand of the submitted applications were for 'equipment-only' projects. These applications were assessed first and grants with a total value of €16.6 million were announced on 6 August.
The remaining applications for capital works are now being assessed. Given the large number of applications received, this work is likely to take a number of months to complete with allocations expected to be announced before the end of this year. Once these allocations are finalised an announcement will made in relation to the opening of the next round of the Programme.
The National Sports Policy as published in 2018 provided for the establishment of a Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). The scheme is designed for projects where the grant being sought is greater than the maximum grant available under the SCEP. The first allocations under the LSSIF were announced in January 2020 and thus far, approximately €86.4 million has been awarded to 33 different proposals. The priority in the short term is to advance all of these projects. As it is now over 18 months since the first allocations were made, and in view of the issues faced by grantees as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is timely to review progress on all projects. My Department is engaging with all applicants in this regard. The timing of any new call for proposals is also being considered and it is expected that the Review will be completed in the coming months
It is open to any relevant organisation with a suitable sporting project, including a local authority, to apply for funding under the SCEP or LSSIF. In this regard, my Department will be in touch with all local authorities when the schemes are open for new applications.
