The 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 1,533 applications were received including one for the project in question which was in the name of the Cork County Athletics Board.
All applications received before the deadline were evaluated against the programme's assessment criteria, which are outlined in the guidelines, terms and conditions of the programme. On 5th April last, I announced €85 million in provisional allocations to 935 organisations, which included a provisional grant of €700,000 to the project in question.