Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 31 Jan 2001

Vol. 529 No. 2

Written Answers. - Sports Funding.

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

66 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the extent to which he will allocate moneys from the proceeds of the national lottery or other sources toward the provision of sporting and recreational activities and facilities in 2001; the projected value of applications in hand under these headings; if he will fund all or part thereof before the end of 2001; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2492/01]

Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation (Dr. McDaid)

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the Government funding made available for the development of sport and the provision of sport and recreational facilities has risen to £117 million for 2001. Included in this provision is an amount of £65,376,000 for the development of Sports Campus Ireland at Abbotstown.

Under the sports capital programme administered by my Department, applications for funding were invited by way of public advertisement on 15 and 17 December 2000 with the closing date for receipt of applications under the 2001 programme being 9 February 2001. Until all applications have been received and assessed, it will not be possible to state the value of applications and the level of grants to be allocated to projects under the 2001 programme. I intend to make allocations under this programme as soon as all applications received under the programme have been assessed in accordance with the guidelines, terms and conditions of the programme. An amount of £20 million is provided in the Estimates for expenditure in 2001.

The Government has committed £45 million to the local authority swimming pool programme for the three year period, 2000-02, and there are 46 applications currently pending. There are four stages in a swimming pool project and grants are not allocated to a project until the third of these stages – when tenders have been received for the work proposed. Outstanding commitments under the programme currently amount to almost £7 million and it is expected that further commitments will be made in the course of the year once tenders and project costs have been finalised in the case of each applicant.

The construction of a 50 metre swimming pool at Limerick University is due for completion this year at a total capital cost to my Department's Vote of £5.9 million. The financial provision in the 2001 Estimates is in respect of the completion of the payment of the Department grant towards the project. A sum of £197,000 per annum has been allocated towards its operational costs to provide opportunities for our high performance swimmers to have access to the pool.

Provision of £16,105,000 has been made in my Department's Estimates for the Irish Sports Council, which has been established on a statutory basis since 1 July 1999. The Government intends to double the annual budget of the Sports Council over the next four years to £20 million and, as a first step, an additional £2.5 million has been provided to the Sports Council in 2001. The council is responsible for the development of sport in all its many forms, including the provision of funding to sports and recreation organisations and high-performance individual sports persons.