Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 April 2024
584. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to outline all pathways through which adult women's football teams can access funding from her Department; and the dates on which the next rounds for applications for available programmes will open. [15188/24]
View answerSport Ireland, which is funded by my Department, is the statutory body with responsibility for the development of sport, increasing participation at all levels and raising standards, including the allocation of funding across its various programmes. Sport Ireland channels the funding through the relevant National Governing Body of sport. Sport Ireland allocates its funding for football to the FAI.
I have accordingly referred the Deputy's question to Sport Ireland for direct reply. I would ask the Deputy to inform my office if a reply is not received within 10 days.
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 now benefited from sports capital funding since 1998, bringing the total allocations in that time to over €1.15 billion. The Programme for Government commits to continuing the SCEP and to prioritising the investment in disadvantaged areas.
The latest round of the SCEP (2023) 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 exceeds the record number submitted under the last (2020) round.
The "Scoring System and Assessment Manual" for the 2023 round has been finalised and published along with a list of all 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 these grants in the coming months. Work will then commence on assessing the capital applications with the allocations to be announced later.
