Mr. Ray O'Leary:

One of the considerations is how to enable the very many bodies that have received funding in previous rounds to move forward with their grants. Clubs make grant applications, some of which are successful. It can then take quite a period of time to draw down the funding because they have to make local arrangements in order to be eligible to draw down the funding and put contracts in place to have the work done. As the Minister said, the money to be handed out to local clubs has been increased this year in light of the previous calls that have been made. The intention this year is to focus on helping clubs to use up the allocations that they have received and then to reopen the scheme, as the Minister said, in the new year. The Department is anxious that the issue with absorption of funds is addressed. As the other Deputy said these are small clubs and they have to put a great deal of voluntary effort into ensuring they draw down the funding.

The work on the national physical activity plan would have been quite distinct from the work on the sports capital grants.