Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I am sure the Ceann Comhairle will be interested in this issue. This is an attempt to get clarity on this problem and reach a solution. The situation has been explained to me by a particular club in my constituency but it affects several clubs to which I have spoken and my Fine Gael colleague Deputy O'Mahony has told me the issue has been brought to his attention by several clubs around the country. The Minister will be aware of how the sports capital programme operates. The club I am using as an example applied for funding in 2006 and was successful in obtaining a grant of €120,000, for which it was very grateful. It delivered on its project on time and on budget, which is as much as we can ask of any club. It was given permission to apply for grant aid for further development in 2007. It applied and was granted €100,000. It followed all the rules, put in its three tender bids and got approval to proceed with the lowest bid. Again, it completed on time and within budget, paid the developer and applied to draw down the grant. Then it hit the problem.

Under the rules, if a total grant aid comes to more than €150,000, a deed must be procured from the Chief State Solicitor's office to ensure that the State would have a hold over the asset if the club is ever sold. I have no difficulty with this as part of the sports capital funding, but the time involved in obtaining this is causing difficulty. In this instance the club has been tied up for months. The club was very conscious of the Department's vigilance in ensuring clubs drew down the funding on time in the same tax year and on completion of the work. However, as a result of following the rules this club is servicing a loan of €100,000. That was originally a bridging loan, and the Minister will be aware of the cost of bridging finance. However, realising the length of time involved the club has switched to an interest-only loan, which is not as expensive but is still a large draw on a voluntary resource.

The other problem is that this is eating up the club's funds so that it is starved of development funding and as a result is unable to apply under this year's programme. I appreciate that strict criteria are required, it is taxpayers' money and it is important that money can be reclaimed if facilities are sold on. This makes sense. However it is unfair that clubs must foot a significant cost as a result. I also appreciate how busy the Chief State Solicitor's office is. I ask the Government to engage with the Chief State Solicitor's office so the problem which affects many clubs around the country can be resolved as the only winners are the banks charging interest. Nobody in the House will disagree that all the clubs do invaluable voluntary work catering for people of all ages and abilities and this places an unnecessary extra burden on very limited voluntary resources.

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