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. The programme is advertised on an annual basis.
In this regard, primary and post-primary schools wishing to be considered for funding under the programme may only apply for funding jointly with local sports clubs or community groups and must meet other conditions including a requirement that the local community will have significant access to the proposed facility, at least 30 hours a week throughout the year, when it is not being used by the school itself. Any sports facility proposed for funding by a sporting organisation and which would be located within school grounds would have to meet these same conditions.
In order to encourage full use of facilities funded, applications for funding are requested to indicate the extent to which they have consulted with other clubs and organisations in the community, including schools. A commitment from schools that they will in fact utilise the intended facility would be important and would increase the project's assessment score. Any such applications received this year will be considered and assessed on that basis.
Concerning applications under the sports capital programme for funding for facilities based in third level institutions, these are assessed on a case-by-case basis, particularly within the context of developing key, strategic, national and regional facilities which would also be open for use by the wider community