Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 October 2023
23. Deputy Emer Higgins asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to increase support for grassroots clubs in the League of Ireland; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45607/23]
View answerWe are fortunate to have many dynamic and vibrant football leagues in Ireland, for females and males, within the pyramidal structure that culminates for adults in the League of Ireland. Participation is a key principle that must underpin grassroots sport and is one of the key tenets of the National Sports Policy. Investment in, and supports to, both grassroots clubs and national level clubs in the League of Ireland is important and our capital funding programmes, as set out below, are providing significant support on both fronts.
Specific Government funding for football is primarily aimed at supporting the delivery of programmes at local level, including programmes such as Football for All, Summer Soccer Schools and Late Night Leagues. Sport Ireland channels this funding through the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).
Considerable additional financial support is provided by the State for the development of football in Ireland, particularly via the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government and the FAI for the period 2020-2023. This provides for a package of funding of €5.8 million per annum to the FAI for the 2020-2023 period for football development. From that amount, €0.8 million is to be dedicated each year to programmes that underpin the development of the League of Ireland and the Women’s National League.
In total, almost €62 million has been provided to the FAI by Sport Ireland between 2019 and 2022 under a range of funding programmes, including specific responses to the recent Covid and energy costs crises.
With regard to capital support, 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 benefited from sports capital funding since 1998, bringing the total allocations in that time to over €1.15 billion. Under the last round of the Programme alone, over €25 million was provided to soccer clubs right around the country. The Programme for Government commits to continuing the SCEP and to prioritising investment in disadvantaged areas.
The latest round of the SCEP (2023) closed for applications on Friday 8 September. A preliminary examination of the submitted applications is now underway but it is clear that the Programme has again generated a very large number of applications and it is likely that the total number will exceed the previous record 3,106 applications submitted under the last (2020) round. Work is now underway on finalising the "Scoring Assessment and Assessment Manual" for the 2023 round and I hope to have it published in the coming weeks. Once these documents are published, the detailed assessment work can commence. In this regard, it is planned to assess the "Equipment-only" applications first with a view to announcing these grants in the coming months. Work will then commence on the assessment of the capital applications with the allocations likely to be announced later in 2024.
Funding is also available from my Department under the 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 including to a number of soccer related projects. Details of all allocations under the LSSIF are available on my Department's website.
With regard to a possible new round of the LSSIF, I am determined to see continued investment in sports facilities in order to ensure we achieve our ambitious targets for sports participation. Accordingly, I will continue to engage with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, in relation to the funding required to underpin any new round.
