Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 October 2021
29. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the status of a review into the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund; and the steps required by Monaghan County Council on foot of the review to secure funding towards the provision of a public swimming pool in Carrickmacross. [47948/21]
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 Sports Capital and Equipment Programme (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.
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 it was not possible to allocate grants to many worthy projects.
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.
Once that review is complete the scope for awarding new grants to projects which missed out under the first set of allocations and the timing of any new call for proposals will be considered. My Department will be in touch with all relevant local authorities at that stage. It is expected that the review will be completed in the coming months.
