Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 September 2021
177. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if funding is available from the Large-Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund; if any further projects will be considered at this time; the process for those applications as in a case (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47207/21]
View answerThe 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 €86.4m has been awarded to 33 different proposals.
An application was received from Wicklow County Council in respect of the project referred to by the Deputy but was not awarded a grant under the first set of allocations. All applications under the LSSIF were assessed in accordance with the published scoring criteria. The total funding applied for under the scheme significantly exceeded the amount available to allocate and the project referred to by the Deputy did not score sufficiently highly to be awarded a grant under this first set of allocations.
While the priority in the short term is to advance all of the successful 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 allocated grants. My Department is engaging with all grantees in this regard. The scope for awarding new grants to projects which missed out under the first set of allocations is being considered as part of this review as is the timing of any new call for proposals. It is expected that the review will be completed in the coming months.
