Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 February 2022
308. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the reason an organisation (details supplied) was not successful in obtaining funding; when the next round of the funding programme will open; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9415/22]
View answer309. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media when the appeals process will be open for those that were unsuccessful on the sports capital programme announcement; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9500/22]
View answer310. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media when new applications will be accepted for sports capital funding 2022. [9501/22]
View answer311. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if an application for funding under the sports capital programme will be reviewed and the appeal process outlined for a club (details supplied) in County Westmeath. [9502/22]
View answer312. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if an application for funding under the sports capital programme will be reviewed and the appeal process outlined for a club (details supplied) in County Westmeath. [9503/22]
View answer313. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if an application for funding under the sports capital programme will be reviewed and the appeal process outlined for a club (details supplied) in County Westmeath; and the reason it did not receive funding. [9504/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 308 to 313, inclusive, together.
The Sports Capital and Equipment Programme (SCEP) is the primary vehicle for Government support for the development of sports and recreation facilities and the purchase of non-personal sports equipment throughout the country. Over 13,000 projects have now benefited from sports capital funding since 1998, bringing the total allocations in that time to over €1.1 billion. The Programme for Government commits to continuing the SCEP and to prioritising investment in disadvantaged areas.
The 2020 round of the Programme closed for applications on 1 March 2021. By this date, 3,106 applications had been submitted seeking over €200m in funding. This is the highest number of applications ever received.
The scoring system and assessment procedures were finalised and published prior to assessment work commencing and all applications were assessed in accordance with these procedures. All of the improvements which were introduced for recent rounds of the Programme to make the process as user-friendly as possible were maintained for this round. This included giving applicants a second chance to submit corrected documentation. The full scoring system and assessment procedures can be viewed at the following link: www.sportscapitalprogramme.ie/.
Approximately one thousand of the submitted applications were for 'equipment-only' projects. These applications were assessed first and grants with a total value of €16.6m were announced on 6 August 2021. The remaining capital applications were then assessed and 1,865 individual grant offers with a total value of over €143.8m were announced on Friday 11 February 2022.
My Department will be in touch directly with all applicants to notify them of the outcome of their applications. Where relevant, this will include details of why applications were deemed invalid. All such unsuccessful applicants will have the opportunity to appeal the Department's decision and full details of the appeals procedure will issue to these applicants shortly.
When the appeals process is complete, a full review of the 2020 round of the SCEP will be undertaken and any recommendations contained therein will be included in the terms and conditions of the next round. The precise timing of this next round of the Programme will be announced once this review is complete.
