Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The local authority swimming pool programme is a separate programme, and it is a very positive one, and there is provision for that. I was in Dunmanway in County Cork recently to see one of the projects that has been recently completed. It is a really good programme and very positive. The nature of swimming pools is they are very expensive, so we do not get as many projects for the same amount of money, unfortunately.

To answer Deputy Troy's question, one of the big problems with the sports capital programme over the years is that it has not been annualised, so the clubs have a difficulty in planning. It is like when a bus comes along and everybody tries to get on it because they are not quite sure when the next one will arrive. We are trying to annualise the programme, but it is not quite as simple as one might think to do so because an awful lot of money being drawn down at present is from previous rounds from two or three years ago. That backlog is a concern I am trying to address. If we were to allocate the €30 million to the €155 million worth of applications, we would leave a lot of people without an allocation. These same people will apply again in the next round. There is an awful lot of duplication in terms of the Department dealing with the same applications, and the volunteers themselves completing the applications again. There is an awful lot of repetition. We are looking at finding a way of trying to clear as many outstanding applications as possible. I hope we will have a very positive outcome from the budget in this regard, to cater for more applicants than we had originally intended. This would be good in terms of getting those people out of the way in respect of duplicating applications.

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