Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 June 2023
633. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if she will provide detailed feedback to Kildare County Council in respect of the unsuccessful application for funding in 2019 for a LSSIF-funded swimming pool in north Kildare (details supplied). [27955/23]
View answer635. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the date on which the LSSIF will open for new applications. [27980/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 633 and 635 together.
The National Sports Policy, which was published in 2018, provided for the establishment of a Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). The first call for proposals under the LSSIF closed in 2019 with applications confined to local authorities and National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of Sport. All applications were assessed in accordance with the published Evaluation Procedures and Guidelines and the first allocations were announced in January 2020. Thus far, approximately €86.4 million has been awarded to 33 different proposals. Eight of the 33 projects are swimming pool projects.
An application was received from Kildare County Council in respect of the project referred to by the Deputy. All applications under the LSSIF were assessed in accordance with the published scoring criteria. The scores were awarded based on factors such as the priority given to the project by the relevant NGB and/or local authority, the level of funding being provided by the project sponsor and how the project was likely to increase participation. 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.
All unsuccessful applicants were given the opportunity to appeal the Department’s decision if it was felt that an error was made in the assessment process. Six appeals were received including one in respect of the application referred to by the Deputy. The appeal was assessed by officials who were not involved in the initial assessment process. No significant errors were discovered in the scoring to warrant a grant award in this case.
The first LSSIF allocations were announced just prior to the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic obviously gave rise to significant financial challenges for all grantees with many of them having to reprioritise their own expenditure plans due to reductions in their income streams. In more recent times, the high level of construction inflation has also presented considerable challenges for grantees.
In view of these issues, it was considered timely to review progress on all projects that were allocated grants and meetings with all grantees have taken place. It is encouraging that, based on these discussions with grantees, over half of the 33 projects should be in a position to draw down funding this year. While this progress is very welcome, these discussions also confirm that some projects in receipt of LSSIF grants may not proceed in the short to medium term. Minister Martin and I will confirm the opening of the LSSIF for new applications in due course.
With regard to swimming pool provision generally, work on the first National Swimming Strategy continues apace, with the working group tasked with its development continuing to hold regular meetings. I hope to be in a position to publish the Strategy in the coming months.
