Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know the Deputy has an interest in swimming pools, particularly in his constituency. The local authority swimming pool programme, LASPP, was operated by our Department and that provides grants to local authorities towards the capital costs of new swimming pools or the refurbishment of existing pools. To date 51 pools have been completed and four swimming pool projects remain in the current LASPP. The priority this year is on advancing these projects and sufficient resources are available to cover these commitments. The budget allocation for 2019 is €4.1 million. Along with €2.8 million carried forward from 2018, this funding will be sufficient for that area.

In respect of the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF, there is €100 million available. We hope to allocate that funding towards the end of this year. It is oversubscribed but not to the extent that the local and regional sports capital programmes are typically oversubscribed. There will be some disappointment in that regard but not as much as the Deputy may have anticipated at local level.

At local level, we had to make a call on the equipment-only grants. We had to cut off the lowest scoring applications because we could not spread the funding too thinly. I expect something similar will happen with the local sports capital programme unlike the 2017 programme when we effectively doubled the budget. As we will not be able to do that this time, there will be some disappointment but it will be done in order of merit in order that the lowest-scoring applicants will be the ones least likely to receive funding. We want to reward those who score highly through the system, which covers a vast range of criteria.

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