Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No, there is not. The funding that is there covers the applications we have at the moment. All the grants given out up to now are covered by the budgetary provision that is there. We are discussing the current sports capital round with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, in the context of the national development plan review. I have been meeting clubs and telling them the reality of the situation, which is that the last time we awarded sports capital, €166 million was granted. That is approximately three times what the previous Government granted in the previous round. The demand this year is €359 million, which is huge. When I meet club representatives, I make the point that the demand has gone up massively. I am not trying to say there is a cut or that they will not get the grant or anything like that. I am just to stating that as fact.

The provision for the sports capital programme in the Estimates is €34.5 million. There is no reduction in that. That is designed to cover the existing commitments the Department has. We will be announcing a sports capital round, which is the awarding of the current application process. That will be sometime this year. The reality is that almost none of those grants will be drawn down this year. If we announce a round in May, June or July, almost none of them will be drawn down this year and, therefore, we do not have to provide for it in this year's Estimates. We obviously need to provide for it in our overall capital envelope and we are in discussions with the Department of public expenditure about the years after that to ensure we have the funds to provide for a really good sports capital programme this year.