Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 11 Jun 2003

Vol. 568 No. 2

Written Answers. - National Lottery Funding.

Jack Wall

Ceist:

187 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the number of lottery grants not claimed or drawn down in each of the past three years; his views in regard to such failures; his plans to alter the guidelines to ensure such occurrences are minimised; the total amount of funding not drawn down; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16156/03]

Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism (Mr. O'Donoghue)

The information requested by the Deputy is summarised in the following table:

Summary of sports capital commitments by year of allocation – 2000-2002

Year of Allocation	Funding Allocation to be met by Dept.*	Amount still outstanding at 31/3/03	Sports Capital Programme (SCP) Grants Allocated	SCP Grants for which no payment yet claimed at 31/3/03
	€	€
2000	53,115,302*	15,539,846	679	51
2001	56,179,561	25,229,743	703	176
2002	97,141,971*	62,568,133	859	510
Total	240,767,065	103,337,722	2,241	737

*Includes funding for other sports capital grants, for example, for Croke Park development.

Under the guidelines, terms and conditions of the sport capital programme, a "sunset clause" provision exists for a grant to be withdrawn if within 15 months of the date of allocation the grantee is unable to satisfy the Department that it is in the process of drawing down the grant. A total of 128 of the grants allocated in the period 2000-02 have been partially or fully withdrawn by my Department and it is the intention in my Department's follow-up contacts with grantees to ensure that they comply in full with the requirements of the sport capital programme in relation to the timely draw down of grants awarded.