Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 February 2022
240. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if capital projects funded through the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund are capped at 70% of the total project; if she has considered increasing this cap in view of rising building costs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5597/22]
View answerThe Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) was launched in 2018 to provide Exchequer support for larger sports facility projects, including swimming pools, with at least €100m being made available over the period to 2027.
The first allocations under the LSSIF were announced in January 2020 and, thus far, approximately €86.4m has been awarded to 33 different proposals. 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 or to provide successful applicants with the full amount that they had sought.
While the priority in the short term is to advance all of the successful projects, as it is now two years since the first allocations were made, and in view of the issues faced by grantees as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was considered timely to review progress on all projects allocated grants. My Department has now met with all successful grantees and work is at an advanced stage in drafting the Review. I expect this work to be finalised shortly.
Once that Review is complete the scope for awarding any additional grants, adjusting the level of existing grants and the timing of any new call for proposals will be considered.
It should also be noted that some grantees have requested to reconfigure their proposals in line with the funding made available. Such requests are being considered sympathetically provided the revised proposal meets the main outcomes projected in the original application and promoters still fund at least 30% of the revised cost.
