Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 12 December 2018
52. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the extent to which he proposes to make further provisions under the sports capital programme to facilitate the ongoing needs of communities nationally in both urban and rural areas having particular regard to the population growth; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52115/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Sports Capital Programme (SCP) as operated by my Department provides funding to voluntary, sporting and community organisations for the provision of sports and recreational facilities. Over 11,500 projects have now benefitted from sports capital funding since 1998, bringing the total allocations in that time to close to €1 billion. The programme has transformed the sporting landscape of Ireland with improvements in the quality and quantity of sporting facilities in virtually every village, town and city in the country.
The 2018 round of the Sports Capital Programme opened for applications on Friday 7 September and the application period closed on Friday 19 October. By that deadline, a record 2,337 applications were submitted seeking a total of €162m in funding. Sanction has been received to make allocations with a total value of €40m under this round.
186 of these applications are for projects deemed invalid under the 2017 round of the programme that were allowed to submit corrected documents this year. These applications are being assessed first and I hope to make allocations to this category of application later this year or early in 2019.
For the first time, applicants who have submitted incorrect documentation under this round will be given the opportunity to correct their application during the assessment period. While there will be no undue delay in completing the assessment process, in view of the opportunity to correct documentation, the record number of applications received and the detailed information contained in each application, it is likely to take a number of months to have all applications assessed. Accordingly, I expect that it will be at least the second quarter of next year before the full set of allocations under this current round of the programme are announced.
In relation to future rounds of the Programme, the National Sports Policy 2018 - 2027 contains a commitment to run a round of the Sports Capital Programme in every year of the policy. The policy also includes a commitment to run periodic national audits of sports facilities to help guide decision making in relation to future Government investments in sports facilities development.
