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.
Applications for funding under the 2007 programme were invited through advertisements in the Press on October 15th and 16th last. The closing date for receipt of applications was November 24th 2006. A total of 1,530 applications were received before the deadline, an increase of 192 on the 2006 sports capital programme, and these 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.
I will decide on the level of provisional grant allocations to be made this year having regard both to the quality of the applications received under the 2007 programme and the pattern of grant allocations and drawdowns on foot of earlier years' approvals.