Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 July 2023
316. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if he will commit to establishing a sports facilities strategy for the State, identifying gaps in provision for certain geographic areas and in areas where multi-code facilities could be established; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33741/23]
View answerThe National Sports Policy 2018-2027 (NSP), approved by Government and launched in mid-2018, outlines the strategic approach to be taken over its 10-year period for the provision of State support for sports facilities. Chapter 4 of the NSP identifies the priorities for Government insofar as sport facilities at local, regional and national levels are concerned, confirming in particular the plan for State capital investment to embrace a broad range of facilities to promote participation across the sports spectrum, such as in clubs, schools and local community organisations. The scoring systems and assessment procedures deployed by my Department for the processing of its capital support schemes, which are kept under ongoing review, are in line with these overall objectives of the NSP.
The NSP also recognises the benefits of having a comprehensive and up-to-date database of sports facilities as the basis for effective and optimal planning of long-term facility investment. To this end, the Deputy will wish to note that the National Digital Database of Sport and Recreation Amenities, currently being developed by Sport Ireland, is on track to be substantially completed by the end of this year. It is a major, multi-annual project involving the integration of multiple datasets from a wide variety of stakeholders that will, inter alia, increase our understanding of gaps or shortfalls in Ireland's sporting infrastructure.In relation to addressing any identified gaps, the need for any policy changes to how capital funding is allocated will be considered further when the work on the National Digital Database is complete. As the Deputy will be aware, my Department provides capital grant assistance for new sporting facilities through the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme (SCEP) and the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF). It should be noted that both schemes already contain weighting provisions in their grant allocation criteria in favour of the attainment of sports policy objectives such as increased participation amongst the disadvantaged, multi-use facilities and greater facility sharing. All such provisions are kept under ongoing review. A new round of the SCEP will open for applications shortly and the scoring system will be tailored to favour projects which fill identified gaps and adhere to the overall policy objectives of the scheme.
