Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have been involved in sports organisations all my life - running them and participating in them - and I understand from where the volunteers who run such organisations are coming. I am excited about being able to help them this week with grants, as is the Minister, Deputy Ross, and it is a really positive story. Funding is allocated per county and we have moved away from the bad old days when the money went where the politics determined, which was not the right way to go about it. It is based on a points system and on the amount of eligible funding sought.

Some clubs might have received notification of invalidation from the sports capital unit if there were questions regarding their applications, particularly where works being applied for had already been carried out. That would be a very small minority, however, and the majority will find out this week. In future rounds, I want to eliminate the issue of invalidation with something like an over-the-counter system, in which the application can be stamped and validated, or an early bird system whereby a person comes in a month before the deadline to ensure that everything has been validated. In the case of some misdemeanours or minor reasons for invalidation, such as a bank statement that might be two weeks out of date or a letter, figure or name which is missing, we should be able to give a second chance to people. Unfortunately, some invalidations are very cruel. I am not committing to this but I am exploring the possibility, even in the current round, of finding an administrative way of doing something, within the budget, which is not too burdensome on the officials in the Department. A very limited number of people are working on this in the office in Killarney, which is in my constituency. Ultimately, applicants are volunteers helping their communities and we want to help them.

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