Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 February 2024
42. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media her plans to address the significant shortfall of sports pitches and other sports facilities, that is growing particularly acute in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, considering the huge growth in people participating in sport, in particular women and girls; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7001/24]
View answerMy Department operates two capital funding programmes for sport, namely the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme and the Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund. Both of these capital programmes are demand-driven. Local authorities also play a key role in identifying land for sports and recreation as part of the local development plan process.
The Sports Capital and Equipment Programme 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 €1.15 billion. The SCEP has transformed the sporting landscape with improved facilities in every town and village in the country. The programme for Government commits to continuing the SCEP and to targeting the investment in disadvantaged areas. As well as being open to individual sports clubs, applications are accepted from local authorities. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has previously received significant SCEP funding for sports facilities.
The latest round of the SCEP closed for applications on Friday, 8 September 2023. A preliminary examination of the submitted applications demonstrates that the programme has again generated a very large number of applications. The total number of 3,210 applications exceeded the record number submitted in the previous round. This includes twelve applications from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
The scoring assessment and assessment manual for the 2023 round has been finalised and published along with the full list of applications received by county, including the relevant sport type for each application received. The detailed assessment work has commenced, and it is planned to assess the "equipment-only" applications first and announce those grants in the coming months. Work will then commence on assessing the capital applications, with allocations to be announced later.
Minister Martin and I have also confirmed that a new round of the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) will open for applications in the first half of 2024, with the dates, terms and conditions to be published on the Department’s website in due course.
