Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The sports capital programme is the Government's primary vehicle to support the development of sports facilities and the purchase of sports equipment. This programme has transformed the sporting landscape of Ireland with improvements in the quality and quantity of sporting facilities in every village, town and city in the country. The facilities that have been funded range from the smallest clubs to national centres of sporting excellence. The health benefits of participating in sport are well known and around 90% of SCP grantees report that they have been able to increase participation as a direct result of the facilities developed with these grants.

The 2015 round of the SCP is the third round of the programme since this Government came into office. This reflects the importance that the Government places on sport and on providing opportunities for participation. The fact that almost 1,600 applications were received under the 2015 round of the programme is evidence of the ongoing importance of the programme. These applications are currently being assessed and I expect to announce allocations later this year.

The programme assists voluntary and community organisations along with the national governing bodies of sport, local authorities, ETBs and schools to develop high quality, safe, well-designed, sustainable facilities in suitable locations and to provide equipment to help maximise participation in sport and physical recreation. The programme also prioritises the needs of disadvantaged areas in the provision of sports facilities with over 40% of the 2012 and 2014 SCP allocations going to designated disadvantaged areas. I am very proud of that. I have also given grants totalling €3.225 million to the Irish Amateur Boxing Association, primarily for the provision of basic facilities for boxing clubs, often located in the most disadvantaged areas.

Every application received under the 2015 sports application programme is being assessed against five criteria designed to give higher scores to applications that will increase participation, share facilities, are from designated disadvantaged areas, have not received significant funding in the past and are ready to be developed as soon as possible. In deciding the final allocations to projects within each county, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and I will give consideration to a number of factors, including the performance of each application during the assessment process, ensuring a geographical spread of projects within each county, ensuring a spread of projects between rural and urban areas within each county, and ensuring there is a spread of projects among different sports.

In the lifetime of the Government €88.5 million has been allocated in more than 1,700 separate grants to sporting groups and organisations under the sports capital programme and related special allocations, for example, equipment grants for national governing bodies of sport, local authority shovel-ready projects and the athletics tracks initiative. Since taking office I have ensured every county gets its fair share of the sports capital programme funding available, based on its population, with an adjustment to give slightly more money to counties that had fared less well under previous rounds of the programme, thus making up for historical imbalances in funding. I am more than happy with the distribution of the sports capital programme funding across different sports and the impact that these grants will have on participation during my time as Minister of State with responsibility for sport.

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