Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy’s suggestion is apt. Within the programme, we are trying to encourage shared facilities and usage. The scoring system for the 2018 programme, which is being assessed and which has been assessed for invalid applications and the equipment-only ones, takes into account clubs and organisations which share facilities. Where there is a licence agreement in place between partners, that application will score additional funding. Other criteria are taken into account when allocating a score to a particular proposal, for example, the socio-economic situation. The Pobal deprivation index is used for that. We also take into account the level of matched funding that is being made available by the partners in projects. We also consider previous allocations to clubs. We do not keep giving huge sums to the same people every time and several other factors are taken into account. In respect of deprivation and disadvantage, the requirements for higher levels of matched funding are lower where the community is scoring in the deprivation area through the Pobal deprivation index. There are several other factors to try to make it as fair as possible and as weighted as possible in favour of communities that are disadvantaged under the Pobal deprivation index.

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