Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 November 2022
177. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media further to Parliamentary Question No. 301 of 16 December 2021, when her officials will furnish her with the review of the LSSIF considering that confirmation was given that officials had met with all successful grantees of the last LSSIF and that the review would be completed early in 2022. [57241/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra178. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the amount of the €86.4 million that was approved under the last LSSIF that has been drawn down to date. [57242/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra179. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if any of the applicants that were approved funding under the last LSSIF decided not to proceed and informed her Department of their decision. [57243/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra180. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the monetary value of the five projects that appealed under the stream 1 of LSSIF; and the value of the one project that appealed under stream 2 of the LSSI. [57244/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 177, 178, 179 and 180 together.
The Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) was launched in 2018 to provide Exchequer support for larger sports facility projects, with at least €100 million being made available over the period to 2027.
The first allocations under the LSSIF were announced in January 2020 and, thus far, approximately €86.4 million has been awarded to 33 different proposals. The projects that received provisional allocations and the amounts provisionally awarded to them are published on the Department's website at www.gov.ie/en/service/4113b3-large-scale-sport-infrastructure-fund-lssif/.
The total funding applied for under the scheme significantly exceeded the amount available to allocate and it was not possible to allocate grants to many worthy projects. It was also not possible to provide all successful applicants with the full amount sought.
It should be noted that the allocations were announced in January 2020 just prior to the arrival of the Covid 19 pandemic. The pandemic obviously gave rise to significant financial challenges for all grantees with many of them having to reprioritise their own expenditure plans due to reductions in their income streams. In more recent times, the high level of construction inflation has also presented considerable challenges for grantees. In view of these issues, it was considered timely to review progress on all projects allocated grants and meetings with all grantees have now taken place. While only €1,646,319 has been drawn down by three LSSIF projects to date, it is encouraging that, based on these discussions with grantees, 22 of the 33 projects should be in a position to draw down funding in 2023. Accordingly, I expect to see significant progress on many of the LSSIF projects in the short to medium term. I am also aware that progress has been made by a number of grantees in securing additional sources of funding outside of the LSSIF process.
In relation to appeals, all unsuccessful LSSIF applicants were given the opportunity to appeal the Department’s decision if it was felt that an error was made in the assessment process. By the deadline, (14th February 2020), 6 appeals were received, consisting of five under Stream 1 (Design) and one under Stream 2 (Construction). The table below provides further detail of these appeals
|
Organisation |
Project |
Funding Sought |
Stream |
|
Westmeath County Council |
Mullingar Regional Sports Centre |
€407,546 |
1 |
|
Dublin GAA |
Spawell Cluster Facilities |
€635,000 |
1 |
|
Irish Squash CLG |
Irish Squash Regional Training Centre |
€46,970 |
1 |
|
Kildare County Council |
Development of a swimming pool / multi use facility in Maynooth |
€700,000 |
1 |
|
FAI |
Drogheda Stadium |
€420,000 |
1 |
|
Clare County Council |
A Flood-Lit All-Weather pitch at Clare GAA Centre of Excellence, Tulla |
€1,161,129.28 |
2 |
All appeals were assessed by officials who were not involved in the initial assessment process but no errors were discovered which warranted an automatic allocation.
All provisional grants awarded for Stream 1 and Stream 2 remain. In the medium term, I will continue to explore all options to assist those LSSIF projects that have not progressed to date and those that narrowly missed out on receiving an allocation.
