The 2017 round of the Sports Capital Programme closed for applications on the 24th February. By the closing date, a record number of 2,320 applications seeking €155 million in grants were received. Of these 2,320 applications, a total of 465 were deemed invalid.
Applications were deemed invalid primarily for one or more of the following reasons:
- Title/Access requirements of the Sports Capital Programme not satisfied
- Evidence of own funding not provided in prescribed format
- Insufficient own funding
All applicants have now been contacted with details of the outcome of the assessment of their application, including details of why applications were deemed invalid. Organisations were invited to appeal these decisions if they believe that an error was been made in deeming their application invalid and the assessment of these appeals is underway. Separately, my Department is undertaking a general review of all invalid applications including those where incorrect or incomplete documentation was submitted. Decisions in relation to how to address any successful appeals and improvements to further reduce the level of invalid applications under future rounds of the programme will be taken once these reviews are complete.