Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fáiltím roimh an deis an t-eolas is déanaí a thabhairt don Teach faoinár bpleananna forbartha um chaipiteal spóirt agus táim ag tnúth le tuairimí na dTeachtaí a chloisteáil. Ba mhaith liom a rá ar dtús gur mhór an onóir dom gur ceapadh mé i m'Aire Stáit le freagracht as an spórt agus as an gcorpoideachas. Ó a ceapadh mé, chuaigh tiomantas, paisean agus fís na n-eagraíochtaí spóirt ar fud na tíre go mór i bhfeidhm orm agus iad ag iarraidh a n-áiseanna spóirt a fhorbairt.

Boosting participation in sport is at the heart of my approach as Minister of State with responsibility for sport. As a Government, we are committed to having 60% of our adult population regularly participating in sport by 2027. While this target is ambitious, it is critical that we do everything we can to achieve it. Participation in sport plays a significant role in improving people’s health and well-being. Research shows that by getting more people to participate in sport we can help reduce the incidences of strokes, cancer and depression, resulting in higher productivity and lower healthcare costs. On children, the WHO regards childhood obesity as one of the most serious global public health challenges for the 21st century. Childhood obesity has become such a problem, in part due to sedentary lifestyles. Accordingly, if we are to compete with these other distractions we must have good quality, safe and adequate sports facilities.

At the high-performance level of sport, we know that sporting success has the ability to lift the spirits of communities, counties and the whole nation. I would like to take this opportunity to commend Andy Farrell, Johnny Sexton and all of the lrish players, together with the backroom team behind them, on their Rugby World Cup campaign. The Irish team never gave up. They put up an incredible fight, right up until the last minute of the campaign. These exceptional ambassadors lifted the whole country and I have no doubt inspired many young rugby stars of the future. High-level success is never achieved overnight and I know that by investing in facilities at grassroots level we can best nurture our future sporting talents.

The Government’s commitment to investment in sport is not only confined to capital spending. In the first half of the ten-year lifespan of the national sports policy there has been clear progress made in sports funding. Our national sports policy set out an aim to double the level of Exchequer funding for sport by 2027. It is my firm belief that money spent on sport is an investment and not a cost. In 2018, when the national sports policy was launched, the budget for sport was €111 million. Last week, I announced an overall budget allocation of €183.3 million for sport. This is an increase of €8 million compared with last year’s budget. We are certainly on track to achieve our target of doubling the level of Exchequer funding for sport by 2027, therefore. I am pleased to say to Deputies that since 2018, the sports budget has increased by 65%. The Government resources which are secured for sport next year will allow Sport Ireland to continue to support the sport sector, which continues to recover from the challenges of the pandemic and faces difficulties around rising energy costs and cost-of-living increases.

Recently, I announced the reopening of the application process for the sports energy support scheme and extended the eligibility period to the end of July. I take this opportunity to urge all eligible sports organisations, clubs and facility providers to engage with their respective national governing body or local sports partnership to ensure they avail of their full entitlements under the sports energy support scheme. Applications under this scheme will be closing soon on 25 October 2023, so I urge all those eligible to apply to do so. I ask Deputies to pass that message out to local clubs because, quite frankly, the level of take-up of that scheme is not what we expected. We have made a lot of efforts to get that message out there but I would appreciate help on this. I visited clubs during the year whose members said the club did not get any help with energy and I told them there was a scheme there for them. We have gone all out to try to get the word out on this and to expand that scheme as much as possible. I refer to the sports energy support scheme.

The 2024 budget allocation will deliver an increase of almost €7.4 million to Sport Ireland. This allows Sport Ireland to increase its support in a number of very important areas, including core funding for national governing bodies of sport and the Women in Sport funding. In line with the High Performance Strategy 2021-2032 and the national sports policy, the Government is providing an additional €1 million in this budget for high performance sport. This increased funding will support Team Ireland in their preparations for the Olympic and Paralympic Games next year and it will continue to develop the coaching and pathways support envisaged in our national high performance strategy.

Before talking specifically about the capital assistance we provide for sports projects, I wish to pay tribute to volunteers in sport. I know the House will join me in this. Today’s statements relate to the need for continued investment in sports infrastructure but the reality is that most of our sports and sport developments would never happen without the volunteers at community level who have the vision and drive to deliver them. We owe volunteers in sport a debt that can never be fully repaid. The investments under our sports capital programmes would have little or potentially no effect without the work of volunteers who organise, coach and encourage people to participate and perform in their chosen sports. Ireland has a great tradition of volunteerism and volunteers are the very backbone of Irish sport. Without volunteers, there would be fewer sports activities and those activities would be more expensive. Volunteers play a major role in sustaining the high level of sporting activity in Ireland with all the associated health and social benefits. Be it our women’s national football team that qualified for this year’s World Cup for the first time, of whom we were all very proud, our recent successful Ryder and Solheim Cup heroes, or indeed the Irish rugby team, as I mentioned already, all of these benefited at different stages of their sporting journeys from volunteer help which has helped to achieve their subsequent success. This has done a huge amount to enhance the international prestige, not only of Irish sport but of Ireland herself, and provides role models for the country’s youth in particular.

I turn now to the two specific capital schemes that my Department administers. The first is the sports capital and equipment programme. I think all Deputies are aware generally of how the sports capital and equipment programme operates. I will briefly provide the House with some background and outline some of the recent changes to the programme. This programme is the main channel of Government support for developing sports facilities and purchasing sports equipment for sports clubs and organisations. More than 13,000 projects have benefited from sports capital funding since 1998 and the total allocations are in excess of €1.15 billion. Grants under the programme have directly improved sports facilities in every village, town and city in the country. I am very familiar with the sports facilities in my own constituency but I have been fortunate to see many of these facilities outside my own constituency since my appointment. The programme for Government commits to continuing the programme and to prioritising investment in disadvantaged areas.

I will speak briefly about recent reforms that I introduced under the most recent round of the programme. I should say, I introduced reforms this year but there were other reforms introduced just before that as well. These reforms previously made were to ensure the system of applying for grants would be as user-friendly as possible and to ensure the methodology for allocating funding is fully transparent and fair. A previous criticism of the programme, which I made myself at the time, was the number of applications deemed invalid at assessment stage. This gave rise to understandable frustration from applicants who had invested significant time and effort in compiling their applications. Measures introduced to address these concerns included a significantly simplified application form, more online validation of applications, and the availability of an online guide showing how to complete the form. Importantly, applicants who submit incorrect documentation are now also given the opportunity to correct their application during the assessment phase, and this will apply to the current round as well as the officials do that work. This work will probably take place some time in the coming months. It is not going to happen in the coming weeks. Some of these measures delay the overall timeframe of the assessment process, and when people ask why it takes so long, this is one of the reasons. However, in general this is very well received by applicants and indeed by Deputies as well.

The measures to reduce the invalid rate of applications submitted have been overwhelmingly successful. For some older rounds of the programme, the invalid rate was over 40%; in the 2020 round it was just 6%. A further improvement made was the introduction of an appeals system, and it is only right that unsuccessful applicants have an opportunity to make appeals. Indeed, I helped some clubs myself in previous rounds with such appeals. Regarding individual grant amounts, historically, there was no clear documentation showing how individual grants were decided. Under the last three rounds, however, the full scoring system and assessment process was published in advance of assessment work commencing. Every application was then scored using the published criteria and the exact amount allocated to each project was based on a formula combining the assessment score, the amount of funding sought and the funding available for that county. I am highlighting this information to the House to show how far the programme has come in terms of transparency. Applicants can now be fully confident that all allocations are made entirely on merit, in line with the published criteria.

In terms of actual outcomes for the 2020 round of the programme, almost 2,900 different projects received a grant offer, with more than €166.6 million allocated. While the main field sports such as GAA, soccer and rugby again did very well, any fair analysis will acknowledge the diversity and spread of grants awarded under the 2020 round. In excess of 50 different sports benefited, including boxing, taekwondo, rowing and wheelchair sport, to name just a few. Every pitch drained, every sports hall refurbished and every piece of equipment bought using these grants allows more people to participate in sport, which is what we are trying to achieve.

I will talk now about the 2023 round of the programme. This round opened for applications on 17 July and closed on 8 September. On the basis of the analysis carried out to date, it is clear that the programme has again generated a very large number of applications. It is likely that the total number will exceed the previous record of 3,106 applications submitted under the 2020 round. I introduced a number of changes to this round after we published the review of the previous round. The review identified new areas for focus, including an increase in thresholds for both local and regional grants, specifically rewarding projects which included adaptations for persons with disabilities, and prioritising applications from areas witnessing significant population growth where that demands new facilities. All of these recommendations have been agreed to. Furthermore, the programme has been expanded to include applications for upgrades to swimming pools, and there is a focus on sustainability, which the Minister, Deputy Martin, highlights in her opening remarks. At short notice, the Minister could not be here this evening and I discussed this with her this morning at question time.

Of particular importance to me is the fact that the guide to making an application makes it clear that ensuring the relevant national governing body of the applicant concerned has met the 40% gender balance target by the end of 2023 is crucially important. I wish to be clear, as I made this point this morning and may not have been as clear, that we cannot apply this retrospectively. It applies to the 2023 round. However, effectively this means if the national governing body of the applicant does not have 40% gender balance on the board, from a sports capital point of view, the applicants will only be entitled to draw down 50% of what they have been awarded. I am not trying to punish people with this but what I am trying to do is get the message up the ranks that the lads, and I mean lads, need to get this sorted out. To be fair, the governing bodies that have not sorted this 40% quota, and we see this in the newspapers, are all taking steps to do this. It is urgent and it is reasonable. It has been there for quite a number of years and we decided this year that we had to do something about it and make sure it happens. The guide also states that under no circumstances will capital funding be provided unless the applicant confirms in writing that it is in compliance with the provisions of the Equal Status Act, and it is a new requirement that projects need to accommodate male and female users on similar terms. This is a new criterion we brought in this year because of a small number of cases which were highlighted to me where this simply was not the case on a very unfair basis.

Work is now under way on finalising the scoring assessment manual for the 2023 round and I hope to publish the new manual shortly.

I will also publish on the website the full list of applicants to the programme. Once these documents are published, the detailed assessment work will begin. In this regard, it is planned to assess the equipment-only applications first, with a view to announcing these grants in the coming months. Work will then commence on the assessment of the capital applications, with the allocations likely to be announced later in 2024. I am conscious of the significant interest in the allocations. I assure the House that I will work hard to ensure as much funding as possible is made available and that the assessment process is completed as quickly as possible.

The other capital funding scheme is the large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF, provided for by the national sports policy of 2018. The aim of the fund is to provide an open and transparent system for applying for grant assistance where the amount sought is greater than that available under the sports capital programme. The first call for proposals under the LSSIF closed in 2019 with applications confined to local authorities and national governing bodies. All applications were assessed in accordance with the published evaluation procedures and guidelines and the allocations were made in January 2020. To date, approximately €86.4 million has been awarded to 33 different proposals.

The first LSSIF allocations were announced just prior to the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic gave rise to significant financial challenges for all grantees, with many of them having to reprioritise their own expenditure plans. In more recent times, the high level of construction inflation has also presented considerable challenges. In view of these issues, it was timely to review progress on all projects, and meetings with all grantees have taken place. It is encouraging that, based on these discussions, a majority of the 33 projects should be in a position to draw down funding in the next 12 months. However, the discussions we had also confirmed that some projects may not proceed.

Following engagement with the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, and his officials, and in recognition of the challenges faced by some grantees, officials in the Department with responsibility for sport wrote to all LSSIF grantees inviting them to apply for additional support by 4 August 2023. Further clarification was sought from some grantees but all of this information has now been received. Accordingly, I hope to be in a position to announce further allocations to grantees in due course, with a view to ensuring that all existing LSSIF projects can be completed. With regard to a possible new round of the LSSIF, I will continue to engage with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, on the funding required to underpin it.

Mar a dúradh cheana, tugann mo ról mar Aire Stáit an deis dom cinnte a dhéanamh de go gcuirtear an-spéis in infheistíocht leanúnach sna háiseanna spóirt. Tuigim freisin go raibh na blianta beaga anuas an-dúshlánach ó thaobh an spóirt de. Uaireanta is nuair a bhíonn rud éigin imithe go mbímid fíor-bhuíoch as agus creidim go láidir gur léirigh Covid-19 cé chomh tábhachtach is atá spórt dúinn go léir. Dá réir sin, táim ag tnúth le cuidiú le go leor tionscadal thábhachtacha spóirt le dul chun cinn a dhéanamh sna míonna amach romhainn trí leithdháiltí nua faoin scéim um chaipiteal agus trealamh spóirt agus faoin gciste infreastruchtúr spóirt ar mhórscála. Is féidir liom a chinntiú don Teach go leanfaidh mé ag troid go dian ar son na n-acmhainní riachtanacha chun a chinntiú gur féidir linn i bhfad níos mó áiseanna spóirt ar gach scála a fhorbairt sna blianta amach romhainn agus táim ag tnúth le tuairimí na dTeachtaí a chloisteáil inniu.

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