The national lottery-funded sports capital programme, which is administered by my Department, allocates funding to sporting and community organisations at local, regional and national level throughout the country for projects which must be directly related to the provision of sport and recreation facilities.
The guidelines, terms and conditions of the programme clearly stipulate that "applicants will have to submit rules and procedures as evidence of non-discrimination on the grounds of sex, religion, ethnic origin etc." This emphasis on ensuring equality of treatment is reflected in the fact that grants allocated under the scheme are made available only to organisations whose membership is open to both sexes. It should, however, be borne in mind that in some situations patterns of participation may differ as between males and females.
Over €213 million has been allocated under the programme since 1998 to more than 2,900 projects. As far as the Department is aware, allegations of discriminatory practices have not been made against any of the recipients of these grants.
As the Deputy is aware, I have recently commenced work leading to the putting in place of a long-term strategic plan to ensure the development of sports facilities throughout the country. I assure the Deputy that the issue of ensuring equality of access and opportunity will be examined by the inter-agency steering group which is to be set up to oversee the preparation of this long-term strategy for the development of sports facilities.