Mr. Miche?l ? Conaire:

The sports capital programme is demand led. In the last round, a record €166 million was allocated and €25 million of that went to the FAI, which was pretty much all of the eligible applications that came in.

In the last round, €166 million was allocated. Some €25 million of that went to the FAI, which was pretty much all of eligible applications that came in. What we have encouraged NGBs to do is to engage with their grassroots, their clubs, and get the applications in. If they do not get the applications in, they will not be allocated funding. The FAI read real progress in the last round. It was a significant jump from previous rounds in respect of their application and activating their grassroots. The assessment of the current round of applications is only just beginning so I can not comment as to what has come in on the football side but overall it looks like it is going to be another record number of applications. If the FAI, no more than other NGBs, can get their grassroots activated, the process is demand led and certainly that is how people are successful in these programmes.