Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. First, I must congratulate the Irish soccer teams on the fantastic job they did in France. Both teams, and their supporters from the Republic and Northern Ireland did their countries proud. I was at the Euros in Poland four years ago, but I did not have the chance to go this time and I missed it. We can all be proud of the great ambassadorial job our supporters in France did for our country. That needs to be mentioned. We can be very proud of what happened on and off the pitch.

In regard to the sports capital programme, a scheme which has one third invalidation indicates there is a problem. I think we need to look at the process. Deputy Fitzpatrick alluded to it earlier. I think we should look at an early bird option, so that if a club or organisation has made its application a month or six weeks before the deadline, there could be an early deadline for those who want to get feedback to be told whether the application is valid or invalid. At least this would give the organisation time to rectify the issue. Alternatively a number of days could be allocated for over the counter validations to try to reduce the number of invalid applications. One in three invalid applications is far too high. From my meetings with those involved in the clubs, the clubs that are most annoyed are the clubs which submitted an invalid application. Clubs can accept not get funding, as the reason could be that there was not enough to go round because the scheme had been heavily over subscribed. Those clubs which made invalid applications feel very frustrated. It causes a high degree of internal hassle in the club, because club secretaries and other volunteers acting in good faith have gone through the process, but for whatever reason, be it a box that was not ticked, or other reason, the application has been invalidated.

It is a difficult process to get right. We should try to make it easier for the applicants. That would be progress. I think it would be better to make it an annual programme, even if one reduced the overall budget, as that would provide certainty. There would be less rush. Clubs that have not got their application quite ready, try to get in because they do not know if the scheme will operate for a few years. As members know it was scrapped in the 30th Dáil. It was reintroduced in 2012, there was a programme in 2014 and 2015, but possibly not in 2016. I think we should try to have an annual scheme, as distinct from an irregular scheme with a larger budget.

Another issue is that a large draw down has not been taken up at this stage. There are various reasons this has not happened. There are some clubs that will never draw down what has been allocated to them. Could we look at incentivising clubs to write off that money if we could reassure them it will not be held against them if they waive it and return the money to the Department? There is money tied up that could be spent on the ground. As we all know there are clubs that badly need funding now. I think it would be a step forward were the Department to take a proactive approach to try to claw back some of the draw down that will never be spent.

I know the Office of the Chief State Solicitor is heavily inundated. Could the Minister liaise with his Cabinet colleagues to try to ensure that the office could be assisted because sports capital grants depend on everything being processed by the Chief State Solicitor's office. Many of the applications are slowed down at that point in the process. It is making it difficult for works to start on the ground. Will the Minister consider this suggestion and raise it with his colleagues?