Vol. 490 No. 5
285 Mr. Ellis asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation if he will give details of the Olympic Council of Ireland's application to his Department for grant-aid towards the cost of sending an Irish team to the World Youth Olympics in Moscow this summer; and if he will give details of his Department's response to their application for funds. [10416/98]
On 23 October 1997, the Olympic Council of Ireland sought funding of £97,500 from my Department to send a team of 104 competitors and 34 officials to the inaugural World Youth Olympics in Moscow in July 1998. The Olympic Council indicated that it had no funds at its disposal to meet the cost of participation. The request for funding was subsequently increased to £147,500 — the additional £50,000 to meet the cost of sports gear.
Following correspondence between my Department and the Olympic Council of Ireland, the application was considered at a meeting of the High Performance Advisory Committee of the Irish Sports Council held on 10 December 1997. A representative of the Olympic Council of Ireland attended this meeting to make a presentation on the application. Based on the information provided, the High Performance Advisory Committee recommended to me the allocation of a grant of £50,000 or 75 per cent of the costs involved, whichever is the lesser, subject to: a more detailed cost analysis of the event when the teams have been identified; specification of criteria for the selection of the teams; and details of the preparations by the teams for the event. I accepted this recommendation and I wrote to the President of the Olympic Council of Ireland on 19 December 1997 informing him of my decision. On 20 February 1998, I received a letter from the President of the Olympic Council of Ireland saying that, in the circumstances, they had decided to withdraw from participation in the World Youth Games.
286 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation if he will allocate a grant to the Irish Coastal Rowing Federation for the provision of 46 one design racing boats. [10473/98]
Applications for funding under the sports capital programme was received from Irish Coastal Rowing Federation in August 1996 and February 1998. The 1998 grants under the programme were recently allocated and all available funds have now been committed to a number of projects around the country. The Rowing Federation was recently advised that they are not among the projects approved for grant aid in 1998. The Sports Capital Programme is currently under review. Accordingly, no further applications are being invited until the review is completed and I am in a position to publicise details of the new schemes.
