Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. He also raised a number of other issues. It would be very wrong for me to upstage Deputy Connolly regarding the wetlands. As the Deputy is aware I am working very hard on the issue of the Ulster Canal and would be as committed to it as is Deputy Crawford. I hope all of us working together can progress the project.

I am replying on behalf of the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Deputy O'Donoghue. The funding available to him is for clearly identifiable programmes relating to sport, arts, culture and tourism. Under the national lottery-funded sports capital programme operated by the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, grants are awarded to sporting clubs and organisations and to voluntary and community groups for the development of sporting and recreational facilities. This programme is the primary means of financing the sporting infrastructure of the country and is administered on an annual basis. A total of almost €395 million has been allocated in sports capital grants to over 4,900 sporting projects since 1998. This funding has been of enormous benefit to the development of sport in this country.

The focus of the programme is the development of sport and recreational sport facilities. I understand the Castle Saunderson project involves the proposed establishment of a permanent national scouting jamboree site and it has a very small sporting element, being primarily a youth facility. An application on behalf of the project was submitted under the 2002 sports capital programme but was unsuccessful because of the minuscule sporting element in a project which at the time was costed at more than €8 million. In 1999 the then Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Deputy McDaid, met representatives Scouting Ireland, the promoters of this ambitious project, and explained to them that the project was not one suitable for consideration for funding under the sports capital programme. Scouting Ireland has not submitted a subsequent application for the project to the programme since 2002.

I have been informed by my colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for youth affairs, Deputy de Valera, that a memorandum was received earlier this week for the project which states that the project, as originally envisaged, would require funding of approximately €10.7 million in phases 1 and 2. I have been advised that there are no funds available in the Department of Education and Science for funding of capital works of this level.

The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism has also contacted the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, regarding possible sources of funding for the project from the Department of Finance and he has advised that the project may be able to apply for funding under the EU-funded PEACE II cross-Border programme. Last year PEACE II was extended for another two years, which means that spending under the programme can now occur until 2008. The Department of Finance stated that a further programme, PEACE III, will cover the 2007 to 2013 programming period. The Castle Saunderson project is advised to contact the special EU programmes body in Belfast for further information on the PEACE programmes.

Unfortunately, for the reasons outlined in the early part of my response I regret that the Minister is unable to offer any assistance towards the project as it falls outside the nature of projects for which funding is provided by the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism.

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