The national lottery-funded sports capital programme administered by my Department, allocates funding to sporting and to voluntary and community organisations at local, regional and national level throughout the country.
Projects considered for funding under the programme must be directly related to the provision of sport and recreation facilities and must be of a capital nature, which, for the purpose of the programme, is defined as: expenditure on the improvement or construction of an asset and includes any costs directly incurred in this process; and purchase of permanently based sports equipment, i.e., it is securely housed, and will remain in use for five years or more.
The programme, however, does not assist in the purchase of sites, premises or personal sports equipment, such as sports kits, gloves, shoes-boots or personal protective clothing, etc. The sports capital programme is advertised on an annual basis. Applications for funding under the 2005 programme were invited through advertisements in the press on December 5 and 6 last. The closing date for receipt of applications was 4 February 2005. All applications received before that deadline are currently being evaluated against the programme's assessment criteria, which are outlined in the guidelines, terms and conditions of the programme. I intend to announce the grant allocations for the programme as soon as possible after the assessment process has been completed.
It is open to any voluntary or community organisation which wishes to develop a sporting facility to apply for funding under the sports capital programme club when applications are invited in the media on an annual basis.