Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 November 2019
45. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if a sports capital programme grant will be provided each year to be paid in the same year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48174/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Sports Capital Programme (SCP) is the primary vehicle for Government support for the development of sports and physical recreation facilities and the purchase of non-personal sports equipment throughout the country. The Deputy will be aware that the Programme for Government provides for the aim to allocate sports capital grants on an annualised basis.
The 2018 round of the Sports Capital Programme closed for applications on Friday 19th October 2018. By the closing date, 2,337 applications were submitted seeking a total of €162m in funding. This was the highest number of applications ever received. 186 of these applications were for projects that were deemed invalid under the 2017 round of the programme that subsequently submitted corrected documents. These applications were assessed first and approximately €7m in allocations to 170 projects were announced on the 17th January. 619 equipment only applications were assessed next and 466 allocations with a value of €9.8m were announced to these organisations in May. The final allocations for capital works were announced in the last week with a total of €39.5m allocated to 1,009 projects.
For the first time, applicants who submitted incorrect documentation under this round were given the opportunity to correct their application during the assessment period. While this new measure did extend the overall timeframe for completing the assessment, the opportunity was well received by applicants and helped ensure the number of invalid applications under this round was the lowest ever.
Now that all allocations under the Programme have been announced, my Department will shortly commence a full review of all aspects of the latest round. This review will consider, inter alia, if any further changes can be introduced to expedite the assessment process.
In relation to successful applicants, all grantees are informed at the time of allocation that they need to make progress in the drawdown of their grant or risk having it withdrawn. It can often take applicants a number of years to fully draw down their grants however, due to issues around legal requirements, delays in the planning process or delays with contractors. Given these genuine reasons for delays in drawing down grants I do not propose to make any changes to the requirements on applicants drawing down grants within a set timeframe at this stage.
