Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will come to Deputy Munster's questions in a minute. Perhaps the Minister of State can deal with the questions from Senator Feighan.

Deputy O'Keeffe asked about extending the sports capital scheme for another year. I agree with him about this scheme. It is a fantastic scheme. It is phenomenal and we would like to be able to do it every single year. One of the Deputies, I think Deputy Munster, made reference to it being missed for a year. We deeply regret that and we are to some extent playing catch-up by going from €30 million to €60 million. We are very anxious to reopen this within months. We will continue so that people can expect funds to flow in the direction of sport on an annual basis. I do not want to give a time commitment but I will commit to it happening. We think it is that important for the health of the nation, including mental health, and we think that it is worth pursuing with vigour and energy. We are committed to reopening this and to allocating another round as soon as possible. We are going to carry out the 2017 revision first but the moment that is completed, we are going to reopen the sports capital programme for a new round. We will need the sanction of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for that, but I do not anticipate that being a problem in any way. This is a great scheme. All parties approve of it. The allocations may not please some Deputies as much as others but it is absolutely going to continue.

I will now deal with some of the questions Deputy Troy raised. I want to make this clear. I make it clear very often but maybe Deputy Troy has not been able to hear. In the past, the process of this fund began with recommendations being made by officials. The recommendations went to the Minister, who then made decisions. I can tell the Deputy that those recommendations, which were made on a strict scoring basis, were not always adhered to. In other words, an applicant could have a high score but once politicians got hold of the recommendations, they were not necessarily the top priority for allocation of funds. Indeed people with very high scores sometimes got nothing and people with lower scores received grants. Perhaps the Deputy will be able to conclude how that happened. It seems to me that alterations of that sort at a political level are totally unacceptable. Let me say that I regret that this happened. As a result of the realisation that this was happening or in other words, that politicians were directing the funds, several independent analyses were carried out. They found that the main flaw in the sports capital grant system was that the money followed the Minister. Deputy Troy will be well aware of that.